Avian Lullaby
by Desirae Joy Wilson
Summary: Sequel to Snake Singer. Zane Cobriana has hidden himself from all who love him for centuries, but when he finds that his greatest love is being hunted by assassins can he go back to who he was before and save her.
1. Prologue

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Prologue~

When I was a child, my father, the Arami of the Serpiente people took my hand and lead my brothers and I to the top of Python hill, a place sacred to my kind which overlooked the Serpiente Keep and the surrounding city. Unlike my brothers, I stood tall in the outlook of this ancient place, unafraid to go to the edge and stand tall, as if challenging the wind to fight me for this place where I stood, or defying the ominous shadow of my destiny to fall upon me, controlling me in a way that it would later in my life. My father saw this strength in me, and, stepping away from my older brothers, he came to me, placed his hand in mine, and with his strong and sturdy voice, the voice of a king and leader that would always put his people first, he said, "One day my son, all of this will be your Kingdom, and you like all of the kings before you will take your son to this hill and on it you will say what every king as said before you: "The world is as wide as it is narrow, and people are as diverse and different as the blades of grass that cover this hill like a blanket, and you as a leader must know and understand that." My father's words haunt me like a scar that never seems to heal, his voice ever present in me, his words ever powerful. I looked up to my father on that day that he took me to the hill, my wide eyes focused on him, but still through the corners of my vision I could see the vastness of everything that had always belonged to my family. "You will never leave me, will you, Father?" My father smiled, but never answered me when I asked him that question. I realized following his murder soon after that day that he had been afraid to.


	2. Chapter One

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A/N: Avian Lullaby takes place about 500-years-after Snake Singer. I remember reading in Hawksong that Amelia Atwater-Rhodes describes that shapeshifter's can live for hundreds of years but have never gotten the chance because of the war killing so many so young. This is my interpretation of that statement. Perhaps its not the way that Amelia Atwater-Rhodes saw it but I can't stifle my creative mind, this is just what came to me. I would also like to thank TallemeraRane for her wonderful editing help with this story.

Chapter One~

When I opened my eyes it was dark.

My room in the Acevedo house was suited for any seventeen-year-old boy, with a stereo and a TV, as well as large glossy posters of movie stars and models. Their full lips and desire-filled gazes should have been enough to make any teenage male proud and happy. However, it was different for me, I suppose, than it would have been different for any other Shapeshifter as old as I was.

I blinked my eyes stiffly, hoping that the strong force of my eyelashes breaking together would vanquish the sleep from them. When they opened again, I searched out the window. The waxing moon came shimmering through the thick glass and was my only source of light with which to see by. I raised myself up from the bed where I had been sleeping since before it had gotten dark and staggered over to the other side of the room where I hastily turned on the light switch. The room filled with luminosity like a manmade rainbow of candlelight.

I stood in front of the mirror as soon as my eyes got adjusted to the light. My reflection, the image that I allowed people to see was that off a tall and muscular boy against the backdrop of jet-black hair and dark eyes. _My eyes. She loved my eyes._

"You have nobility about you!" my chosen grandmother Diane Acevedo always said to me, and I had been sure for several years that that is how the world saw me. Slightly mysterious, but always giving off the facade of the lie that I had perfected so well over time. I had been called many things in the years since I left my family: "Outcast," "Drifter," "Orphan," "Son," "Grandson," "Brother." But never my true name, and never given with the true nature of who I was.

Zane Cobriana, leader and king of the Serpiente people, husband to Danica Shardae of the Avians, my greatest and oldest enemy.

Shakespeare wrote about, like many authors have done over time, but I lived it, and it ended like a bittersweet novel that was too beautiful to put down when you read it, but when you were through you felt just as empty as you did when you picked it up. My life before was glimpses, me picking that book up and reading through it until it ended, and so it has remained closed for hundreds of years, never to be opened again.

I am not Zane now, or king or leader to anyone, and Danica is like a whisper of wind that blew across my face on a warm summers day and then flew away on the wings of the Golden Hawk that she so loved to take shape in. My name is Alex Acevedo, grandson of Simon and Diane Acevedo, both affluent and influential people in the Seattle area. Their daughter Christina was a drifter; like me almost. She made her way from place to place until at twenty she found herself pregnant and involved with an ex-con named Michael Judd. I remember reading about her murder in a newspaper in Spokane back in the 80s. Big news! Ex-Mayer Simon Acevedo's daughter found murdered in her apartment and her infant son Alex missing, as well as Michael Judd, her boyfriend, and the baby's father. The cops never found Judd, and I don't know where he and the real Alex are, or if either of them are alive or dead. And both Simon and Diane remain haunted with the realization that they outlived their only child, and that they lost so much of their grandsons life. I came to them a few years ago, with the story that my father Michael Judd had abandoned me when I was eight on a Texas turnpike and that I had been taken in by strangers and then eventually sent to a few foster homes in that area. I showed them a picture (a newspaper clipping) of a woman that my father said was my mother and they believed me. I think that they would have believed any boy who came along with the same story; they were more desperate to love someone then they were to find an actual blood connected relative. We served the others prepuce- they got what they wanted, and I got what I wanted.

I took only a moment to look at my reflection: Wrinkled white shirt that I pulled at with my fingertips to straighten and dark blue jeans. A James Dean look almost. _Just call me the clean-cut rebel from Seattle._ I slicked back my long hair with the palm of my left hand and with my right I reached over to the chair against my desk and grabbed my black leather coat that I had placed there when I had gotten home earlier. I pulled the jacket on and slammed the light switch back down with my hand. The room was dark again.

The Acevedo's house was at the top of Queen Anne Hill, a posh and high-class part of Seattle that was filled with every kind of person from original founders of the city to new and up coming bank brokers and Boeing executives. The house was large, but not too large and my room was the last room down the hall from the stairs overlooking the Space Needle and the waterfront.

As I turned the corner and headed down the corpulent staircase, I saw Diane Acevedo in the living room. Her back was turned to me as she sat in the high back blue chair that faced the lit fireplace. I stopped, watching her for a moment. The older woman was still grief stricken over her daughter's death even though it had been a good fourteen years since the incident. Diane was religious- a little too religious for me, but she was a good woman underneath all of her fears and insecurities. I gazed at her as she stared into the leaping flames before her. I didn't need to see her from the front to know what she was doing. I knew that in her hand she held a silver rosary, the same one that she always wore around her neck and that her fingers were weaving over and around the silver beads that connected to the small statue of Jesus Christ at his crucifixion. I could hear her mumbled prayers even from the staircase and could practically recite what she was saying by heart. She prayed to the Saint of Lyon, Claudine Thevenet and asked her to help her daughter Christina, I listened as she mentioned me as well: "Bless Alex for his courage and let him know how much we love him and regret that he did not come to us sooner!"

I made it down the stairs a few seconds latter, with Diane still praying in front of the fire.

"Grandma?" I whispered, a lie, but a lie that I was good at just the same.

"Oh Alex!" she said, a hint of surprise in her voice as she stood up from the chair. Her figure regal and statuesque from years of playing the part of the wife of the Mayer, doting companion, and mother. I had always suspected though that when she was young she was quiet a wild child. She held her arms out to me, and we embraced. "Are you going out darling?" she asked brushing her hands over the slick material of my leather coat.

"With friends, I won't be home late." I kissed her sweetly on the cheek like a child kisses his mother before going to bed. We said our goodbyes and I left.

The streets outside were slick and wet. Most people imagined Seattle as a gloomy and dreary place and in truth it was, but when you've lived here a while you don't really notice it. After three straight months of rain and gray clouds end and you see the sun you kind of begin to miss the rain.

I'd been living in Washington for about thirty years, since the seventies when the woman I was living with in Florida died in a car crash and I as her only surviving family member received all of her estate. I had lived in Florida too long to go to another family and invent a new role for myself, so I decided to get as far away as I could and Washington seemed like the best place.

My grandfather Simon Acevedo had an old red corvette from his younger days sitting around in storage and for what he thought was my sixteenth birthday he gave it to me and I as soon as I was out onto the street I jumped in. Its feel fit me perfectly and I treasured the car and the day that it had been given to me. Not since the old days in my Serpiente land had I felt so loved, not since my real family were all still living and the war with the Avians was just something that was happening and had not truly touched me yet.

I drove the car down Queen Anne with ease and onto the freeway. My journey was a short one as I headed for Squally Forest. The kids at my High school loved to hang out there; it was one of the only real untouched lands near the city.

I drove the car up a short road, to my left was the city, and to my right was a stretch of Evergreens that went on as far as the eye could see and went as deep as twenty-three miles in. I parked the car on the edge of the road, still a long way from where my friends would be.

I stopped a few feet away from the trees; breathing in the cold crisp air and watching my breath come out silvery against the wind and travel up to the sky. I reached my hands out, feeling the tips of the forever-green branches as they grew wildly from the trunks of the trees. I listened, but could hear no noise, and I watched but I knew that no one was around for miles.

Finally with a deep breath I pushed the human form of myself deep inside and felt the pure snake form emerge. My skin glowed and shimmered as my veins blackened. The blood that once filled my body with warmth froze and the sting of ice cooled my body in seconds. Smooth pale skin morphed and changed into black scales. About a minute after I began the change my legs and arms caved in, forcing my body to the ground but before the force of gravity caused me to fall the change completed itself and my light thin body caught itself and I stood perched against the ground, half of my body erect and watching the surroundings around me.

Everything was different in this form, everything felt different, smelled different, tasted different.

The ground was jagged and hard but it felt magnificent below my scales, itching and scratching at them as I slithered deep into the forest. I could travel faster this way, cover much more distances and I would get to my friends faster this way then I would if I was still driving.

About a half an hour latter and five miles deep in the forest I began to hear the muffled sound of loud music, silenced by the distance. Voices, quiet voices to me but they would be louder when I got where I was going. I traveled in my snake form only a bit longer, not wanting to risk anyone seeing me as I changed back into my human form.

In a clearing, behind a fallen and rotting log I hid myself. I could see movement in the trees and bushes up ahead and knew that this would be the best place to morph again. I concentrated, pushing the snake deep within myself as I had earlier when I pushed the human form in. I let myself spread out, feeling the stiff tightness of my arms and legs reshaping and renewing themselves against the ground. My skin was being pulled in a thousand different directions but I felt no pain, only the longing to stay in this form that seemed truer to me then that of Zane or any other person that I had been over the years. The ice in my veins melted fast and a heat wave splashed over me like water against the sands. My skin smoothed, my face relaxed. and I was once more human again.

Beads of perspiration cascaded down my face slowly and with the sleeve of my leather jacket I pushed them away. Changing always took a lot out of me; it was changing to and from my snake body that could be sometimes unpleasant and awkward. I was out of breath, but I wasn't willing to lie against the cold earth until my heart rate calmed down. I stood up, my boots smudging the moist dirt as I walked the rest of the distance to the group on foot.

The group was larger then usual tonight, more like a party then a gathering which I would have preferred. "Hey, Alex!" A kid shouted to me waving his only free hand which was also cupped around a beer can, his other hand around the waist of a girl that he had been kissing. I waved back; nodding my head in teenage approval of snagging the girl whom to me already looked drunk. 

I continued to walk, though rows of teenagers all half wasted and drunk continued to pass my sight. "Brian!" I called out seeing the only person in the world that I would call a friend. Brian Tyake had befriended me when I first came to the Acevedo's. Brian was noble, and reminded me of many good soldiers that had served under me so long ago.

"Alex," he gestured reaching his hand over for me to shake it. "What happened to you?" He asked with raised eyebrows, as he looked me over, "You look like you've just run a marathon."

I smiled; "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

His look in return to my joke was complex, as if he knew that I really wasn't joking but playing along just so I wouldn't feel to revealed.

Brian handed me a beer, but I didn't accept it. I, like any creature of the earth on a night like this, was breathing in the cool crisp air and watching the winds high above us move and part the clouds into shapes and forms and then disappear.

"Hi, Alex," a sweet voice said from behind me as I watched the stares. I lowered my head and turned around and saw that Veronica Inmen stood behind me. She was pretty and I knew that she had a crush on me, but I really wasn't interested. "I got you one!" she said cheerfully as she handed me a can of beer. I had to accept it, she looked like she would fall to pieces if I declined.

"Thanks," I said taking a sip and letting the chill of the sweet liquid flow down my throat and chest as I swallowed it. It was almost like the chill of my snake's blood.

Veronica smiled, the sweet and sinful smile of a devious little child who was playing nice just to get what she wanted. "Come on," she said taking a hold of my hand. "I have something to show you."

With my hand in hers, Veronica Inmen led me away from the crowded party and deep into the woods behind it. She led the way, and as she pulled me along I took in her features. She had short red hair, the reddest hair that I had ever seen, and I would have thought that it wasn't natural had I known that it actually was. She was small, short, and skinny with long legs. She had a black dress on, short with a low neckline and a gold locket around her neck, she turned around to face me and smile or tell me that we were almost their several times as she dragged me along and each time she did I saw her locket gleam and shimmer in the moonlight. I wondered whose faces were in that locket, and why she wanted to keep them so close to her. Around her shoulders was a dark green leader-men's jacket that was at least twelve sizes to big and hung around her elbows and left her shoulders bare revealing the outline of high shoulder blades and a thin back line. She was drunk, I could tell by the way she moved, and by the way she addressed me as we made our way further into the forest.

"Here!" she said with a great out take of breath. With one of her hands, she pushed me against the trunk of a large Evergreen, its base three times larger then me and I leaned up against it with several feet of tree on both sides of me. Carefully, slowly, she instructed me to sit on the ground and I did so without objection. I watched her, like a predator watches its prey. Every fumble, every crooked smile as she did what she could to please me.

She stood above me smiling as I sat against the tree stump. "Oh, Alex," she said lightly, stroking my cheek with her warm hand. "You look like a Greek god in the moonlight." I choked out a smile and a laugh; _what a ridiculous notion_. "Don't laugh at me!" She said innocently as she kneeled down before me, the skin on her slender legs smashed into the dirt. "Oh, Alex," she said again, as if she were in a dream, and she leaned down, and kissed my jaw line where the two sides of my chin diverged. Her kisses were like happy bursts of love and need, but I felt nothing from them, only what she felt, and what she wanted me to feel.

Her lips danced along my jaw line until they reached my neck and shoulder where she continued to kiss tenderly. _"Oh, Alex," _she moaned, and I put my arm around her waist; I wanted more to comfort her then to egg her on. I leaned my head against the tree behind me, my eyes focusing on the sky above me, and the canopy of trees that veered in and out of my upward glance. Veronica continued to make her advances, bringing her warm kisses down my chest and I felt the fullness of her lips through my white shirt. I felt her locket, too, as it was pressed against my skin from hers, its outline burning a whole of wonder in me as I continued to question whose picture it was that was inside.

"What's this?" I asked, pulling her away slightly as I reached for the locket and examined its pure gold surface and felt with my finger tiny designs of ivy and flowers.

"It doesn't matter!" she choked, leaning back in to continue where she had left off.

"No wait," I said, "whose picture do you have in here?"

She sighed, and I knew that she was annoyed with me. She pulled the locket and opened it with the tips of her long fingers and pulling the two hearts apart I could see the small pictures of an elderly woman on one side and an elderly man on the other. "They're my grandparents ok."

I opened my mouth to speak, hoping to branch out on conversation from what she had just said, but she didn't let me. She pulled my head down and kissed me on the mouth, her warm face against mine, her hot breath inside of me. I wanted her to stop, but at the same time I longed for a woman's touch, a touch that I had neglected for so long. I tilted my head, allowing her lips to travel down the other side of my neck.

I could see the sky again; full of blues, and blacks, and grays and a moon that seemed so powerful and commanding. I could feel all of Veronica's body against me, the feel of her young breasts against my chest, and her legs near mine. In a moment of passion I kissed her back, full and hard as I hadn't kissed anyone since Danica. I wanted it to be Danica, I needed it to be Danica, but as I took my lips away from hers I realized that it wasn't.

I slammed the back of my head against the tree again, racking my brain with a way to get out of this mess. I needed to stop Veronica before she went to far, but I didn't want to hurt her.

My breathing intensified as I contemplated going further with her. The sky was like a book of instructions that I was trying to read and understand.

And then I heard it.

The cry of the Golden Hawk. It was like music that I had heard as a child and would never forget. It was as loud as a thousand sirens in my head. I pushed Veronica away completely, and yelled at her until her protests ended and there was silence. _I had heard it! I know that I did! _I don't think that I breathed for almost a full minute.

I searched the sky like a mad man, examining every breath of wind which might have been caused from the breaking of her wings in the sky. Every moving branch became a perch for her to watch me upon. I listened, I waited. Then, as a jewel against the heavens, I saw it. The golden Hawk sore across the sky, its feathers highlighted by the shin of the moon above her, and its cry as beautiful as the sound of her own voice. "Danica!" I yelled, pulling myself up from the ground and holding my jeans that Veronica had unbuttoned up so that they would not fall. "Danica!" I screamed again, ignoring Veronica's questioning voice in the background.

I called out her name several more times, but she was gone, her presence and the cry. _Was it Danica? Had she found me after all of these centuries apart? _I didn't even know if she was still alive. "Danica!" I whispered into the night, I knew that if she were out there she would hear my voice, hear me calling her even if I only ever whispered it. Her Hawk's hearing was acute and accurate, and she would be able to hear my voice from miles away.

"Danica," I beckoned, "come back to me."

I got home a few hours latter, exhausted and weary from the night's events. By the time I got home both Simon and Diane were asleep, I could hear their mute breaths from behind the door and I knew that they both were in a deep sleep. I made my way to my room, the ache of longing and dissatisfaction curling around my bones. What I was doing made no sense. Thinking about her would only hurt me more, yet there had not been a day sense I left her that I had not thought of her. I made my choice though, however much it hurt to be away from her I would have lost her eventually. There was no group amongst our people that would have allowed our union to continue for long. No Avian would have been ruled by a Serpiente King for long, and no Serpiente would have done the same with and Avian Queen. What I did was for the best, not just for her but for me as well.

When I entered my room I hit the light switch back on. The clock on the wall opposite me read 3:00 AM and I sighed at the thought of the late hour. I took off the leather jacket, letting it drape over the chair at the desk again, and I pulled off the dark blue jeans, placing them on the floor near the closet and allowing my white shirt to hang over my boxers. I hit the light switch again and the room was back in darkness. I started to make my way for the bed but stopped when I saw the window out of the corner of my eye. It was late winter, but I didn't care. I went to the glass, and pulled the hinges up until the lower half was open and exposed. A burst of fresh cold late winter air hit me hard, sending prickles of Goosebumps across my arms. The wind brought the branches from the tall Chestnut outside my window against the house and the scrapping sound reminded me of butter being spread over burnt toast.

I took one final inhale of wild wind before turning around and coming to the bed where I pulled the covers aside and clamed in. I felt my bones relax, and lighten above the soft cushioning of the mattress and closed my eyes, hoping the serenity of deep sleep would take me. I feared that if I dreamed I would dream of her.

Sometime during the night my eyes burst open. The cry of the Golden Hawk awoke me. I jumped out of bed quickly, Danica's name readily on my lips but when I got to the window I saw nothing. The sky was clear and the sounds of moments had been silenced. The world was in a dead calm, no wind, and no noise. All I could see was a single branch on the chestnut swaying, only one branch as though a bird had been perched there and suddenly flown away.

I sighed heavily. _Could it be? After so long._


	3. Chapter Two

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Chapter Two~

I remained awake for the entire night, watching as the clouds formed and then parted. As the sky changed from dark blues to light, and then blue to purple and red, I stayed vigilant at the window waiting for her all night. I spent the night hoping, praying that in the coming hours I would see her – that she would come back to me. Whether by the moonlight or by the rising run, it didn't matter. I longed to feel her in my arms, and I hoped that my need to be with her was as strong for her as it was for me. The sky cleared in the morning hours, but she did not come. My mind was filled with everything that she had ever done or said to me. I could still feel the touch of her skin on my fingertips and the taste of her lips as they danced and parted with my own.

_"The sun will still rise and set if I am not at your side," _I had told her the night that I left her side so long ago.

I remember the feel of her arms around me and the weight of her head as it rested against my back, I felt her lips move as she remarked: _"The sun may continue to rise and set, but I will not rise, only set."_

Her words were like scars deep within me, her voice as clear and beautiful as it was then, and as I hoped it had remained so after all of these years.

_Was _she still alive? I asked myself, I had not seen her or any one else who had known us then in hundreds of years. I heard rumors on my many travels. Whispers of Danica Shardae, who once ruled over the Avian people but now after the human race invaded our lands and took over she became somewhat of a ghostly saint. Saving those who remained of her race and the many other shapshifting kinds whom had scattered to the winds. She provided comforts and love for the survivors of war, and helped to control the ever-growing Vampire population. I had stayed away from those rumors, always keeping my distance and remaining hidden from my past. I shed it like an old snakeskin, leaving it far behind me on the road that was my destiny.

I continued to watch the sky, though by midmorning I began to lose hope, her face still burning holes through my skin, and her voice, her sweet voice still echoing through my ears. _"We will never be apart again Zane. Never."_

I lost hope that she would come back to my window again; if she was near, then coming here was only a warning to me, a declaration that she was here and that she knew I was here. If she wanted or so desired to, she would approach me soon.

What am I doing? I asked myself furiously, clenching my fists into balls and wanting to punch them into my own skin. I should leave now! I figured, get away before I see her again. That would be best, the best for me and for her, even if we couldn't see that now. 

I walked away from the window, the feel of the warm carpet deep underneath my toes. I pulled on the dark blue jeans that I had worn the night before and tore off the white shirt. My chest looked chiseled, years of war and training to fight forced my mussels to form young and my constant changing from human to snake kept me in shape. My flesh was darted with scars, some small and others large. A four-inch scar went up from my waist on my left side; I could still feel the blade that had cut there so long ago when I was held prisoner in the Underground Municipality. Its sharp edge ripping and tarring until it broke free of the surface. I had been discovered to be the Arami and beaten for it, then later as I recovered, one of the prisoners dragged his blade there as a warning that I was no longer king, and in this place I was fair game to terror. I could also feel the scar that went across my right shoulder blade, the wound caused by Vasili of the Avian's. My heart grew heavy whenever I thought of Vasili, his words of doubt were what drove me away from Danica, and in some strange way, he was still driving a wedge between us.

Without hesitation I pulled on a black T-shirt that had been hanging in the closet, then hastily I donned the leather jacket that was still on the chair at my desk. I was leaving, I had to, and I could never come back here again. I knew that the only way of avoiding Danica, and all that I desired was, to get as far away from her as possible and hope that she would lose my track and that I would be safe again. I took one last look at my room; one last gimps of Alex Acevedo.

I didn't encounter Simon or Diane on my way out; I was glade of it. I would miss them and their company. Of all of the people who had been my companions in my life they were some of the kindest, and I knew that in future when I looked back on my time here I would smile and be appreciative of that.

The red corvette was parked where I left it and without looking back at the house I turned the key and drove off, my foot heavy on the gas. I could navigate these streets with my eyes closed and I knew every corner and avenue that I would need to take to make my way out of the city and out of Washington.

The freeway was busy; early morning traffic mingled with the morning rush hour. I took a deep breath as I waited, wanting to be free of Danica and the constant weight of her absence on me. Part of me wished that I had never met her, that I had never broken into the Hawks Keep when we were young and that I had never set eyes on her. But I did, and she stared me down from memories and held me mercilessly and has never let go.

What if she was still in the forest?

The thought had never entered my mind before. What if she had been living in the forest and that was why she saw me with Veronica to begin with, and then realizing that it really was me she then followed me home. Without seeing if there were cars behind me I turned the steering wheel until my path had changed and I took the small off ramp exit that would take me back to Squally Forest, and for a fleeting second I hoped that it would take me back to her.

My route back to the forest was the same as it was last night. I parked the car near the edge of the road; I changed into my snake form, only this time I had to go deep into the forest before I changed. The possibility of being seen changing was greater in the daylight then it was at night.

In my snake form I made my way deep into the forest, enjoying the solitude of the silence, and with my outstretched senses, I knew that there was no one else in the forest but me. After about forty-five minutes of travel I came upon the spot where the party had been last night. The ground was littered with trash and beer cans as well as large pits that people had lit fires in. The once green grasses that had surrounded those large pits were now covered in a dark ash and burned to an unpleasant crisp. I continued to travel in my snake form until I got to the large tree where I had been sitting at when I saw her last night. It wasn't until I was there that I changed back into my human form. I sat leaning against the tree trunk as I had been before and I watched the gray sky change and morph as the hours passed waiting for her.

As I sat there a small dark green Gardner snake slithered to my side. I welcomed the company, and let the small reptile slink and curl in and out of my fingers as I held it in my hand. The snake was female, and gentle as she playfully wrapped herself around me. She was old! I could tell by the colors of her scales and by the feelings that she was giving off to me. Snakes had no real vocal communication skills, but they made up for that in body language and giving off feelings. She stayed only for a moment. I think that she recognized my connection to her and wanted to further investigate this strange creature that in so many ways was like her but looked so separate. Soon she grew disinterested, and I let her uncurl her tiny body from my hand and fingers and watched as she made her way back into the trees ahead of us.

Once again I was alone.

I got up and paced a few times, always keeping my vision on the sky and the surrounding trees. I called her name out a few times as well; sometimes as desperate whispers, other times as heartfelt screams.

There was nothing.

Dead silence. Dead calm.

By nightfall I had given up all together. The idea that she had found me or that she was anywhere near here became utterly ridiculous, and I couldn't help but laugh and put myself down for thinking it. On foot, in my human form, I made my way back through the forest. I didn't want to change, I wanted to walk, and run away from her to where I knew the aspect of her so near to me could be eliminated. I knew that it would take me hours on foot, but I welcomed the exhaustion, feeling the air chill with the late hour, and listening to the change of the daylight animals into the nocturnal ones.

As I walked deeper into the forest I felt a slap of wind come up from behind me, its current of air so strong that it almost picked me up and carried me a foot ahead of where I was standing. I looked up to the sky, amazed and curious as to where the sudden wind had come from. The sky was almost pitch black now, and the moon flowed above me as it branched its light far across the sky, and then I heard it again. The golden cry, loud and beautiful against the night. Then I saw her, in her Hawk form gliding across the sky, her powerful wings stretching far across from her golden body and sending surges of wind down onto the world below. "Danica!" I yelled as she circled away from me and began to fly in the opposite direction. I was determined not to lose her, so I turned around quickly and ran after her. I called her name out again and again, but it did not deter her from her journey.

"Danica!" I said again, my voice pleading with her to stop and come down to me. I wanted to be reassured that it was really her that I was seeing and not just some bird that I was actually following and calling out to.

"Danica!" I saw her form billow and slice through the sky above me, her body waving in and out of sight as the tips of trees and long jagged branches got in the way of my view of her.

I ran faster now, the burn of my bones was nothing compared to the agony of knowing that she was purposely not stopping for me, even though I knew that she could hear me calling out to her.

"Dan-" I began to say but was stopped by a man who stood directly in my path. The shock of his face sent surges of wonder into me. His face! It was my face! I stared at it for what seemed like hours. In form he was identical to me, same height and build but where my hair was dark his was a yellowish gold and hung clear down to his chin where mine stopped just above my cheek bones.

"Who are you?" I demanded, exhausted from the chase and weary that I had lost her again.

"Well, what's the matter Zane," he said to me, his voice deep with the slightest hint of an accent behind it. "Don't you recognize your own family?"


	4. Chapter Three

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Chapter Three~

The cold air chilled my lungs as I took deep exhausting breaths. _Family? What did he mean by family? How could this boy who I had never seen before call me family?_

He looked at me as though he were my shadow, his eyes as questioning as mine. I examined him to ward off the silence. Tall and muscular (like me), he was dressed in a semi casual suit of a light blue button up shirt and tan slacks. His feet were bare, which I found strangely unusual do to the cold of the night and the attire that he was wearing. His face was what kept me most intrigued though. Light red eyes pulsated me with as much curiosity to me as I did to him. High angled cheekbones formed his face and his long blond hair curled slightly as it hung past them.

"Who are you?" I managed to choke out over my exhaustion and doubt.

He tilted his face to me, as though he were trying to read the meaning behind my words. He smiled a few seconds latter, a full smile, as though he knew something very important and was trying to see if I knew the secret as well. "Who are you?" I yelled this time, my frustration overpowering everything else in me. "What did you mean by family?"

His smile widened. "Don't be angry. I'm not here to hurt you."

The thought hadn't even crossed my mind. His prepuce, whether for good or bad, I hadn't contemplated, and, for a moment, the idea of a fight between us probed into my brain. I wondered how good his fighting skills were.

I wanted to speak, ask who he was again, or what he wanted, but I didn't want to waste my breath. This boy, whoever he was, wasn't giving anything away, and I wasn't in the mood for games. He must have sensed the change in my demeanor, because his changed as well. He straightened his head so that it no longer tilted and his features relaxed, as though he was less alert to the danger that I might caused him.

"You truly don't know who I am?" he asked, his eyebrows lifting as he tested me.

"No," I sighed.

He let go of his smile. "You only saw me once, a long time ago at the Serpiente Keep. I was just a baby in my mother's arms." I smiled as I recognized his story. "My mother called me Zane then, but I am called Zachary now. Do you know who I am?"

I did know, he was Zane Jr., my sister the Lady Irene's son, and I had seen him once at the Serpiente Keep before I left those lands for good. "What are you doing here?" I asked, raising my arms up to embrace him, but he stepped away before giving me the chance.

"Don't!" he pressed. "Though we are kin, their is no friendship between us." I stepped away, hurt by his words and lack of trust. I saw it now, though, the resemblance and why he looked so close to me. His hair was from his father, the soldier who had stolen Irene's heart so long ago, and his features bearing so close to mine I could only assume was because of our bloodline. All of my brothers looked as I did, it only made sense that my nephew would carry with him the Cobriana face as well.

I looked him over once more, and began to see small hints of Irene in him as well. The curve of his smile was the clearest to me, and the image of my dear little sister came to me. Hers was a face that I longed to see as well. "Well, why have you com? Is your mother with you?"

He flinched slightly, like I had just pretended to slap him. He looked up at me with unforgiving eyes as he said, "My parents were killed long ago!" I hung my head low, and Irene's smiling face was replaced with a horrific death scene. I saw her lying dead on the throne room floor of the Keep, bloodied from too many wounds to survive.

"I'm sorry," I said to him sympathetically, trying to hide my own grief as I felt tears choke in my throat. I turned away from him slightly, "I did not know."

"No, you wouldn't, would you," his words were harsh, but he deserved to say them and I said nothing back.

"Well, where have you been all this time then?" I turned back around to face him.

"Danica Shardae raised me, and it is on her behalf that I come to you now."

I swallowed hard, "Then it was her that I saw last night."

"Yes."

I said nothing more, as I could tell that Zachary was protective over Irene, and I could only presume that he would be protective over Danica as well. He took a deep breath, preparing himself and me for what he was about to say. "Danica is being hunted, and it is only because we have no where else to turn that we come to you now."

"Hunted?" I questioned. "Hunted by whom?"

"Not now. All that I need to know is if you will help her."

I was silent for a moment. I couldn't even imagine who or what could be hunting her, and why. There was no choice for me though, without a second thought I answered: "Yes!"

"Good, now go back to your home, she will met you there in one hour and explain everything herself."

I wanted to ask more; I needed some kind of explanation as to what kind of situation I was getting myself into. "Is she all right?" I begged, grabbing hold of his arm as he prepared to turn away.

"One hour!" he said back to me, and within a flash he changed from his human form into his snake form. Black cobra. I watched helplessly as he slithered away into the forest where I knew I could not follow him.

I changed quickly as well, wanting to get home before the end of the hour had come. I knew what I was doing was wrong; it went against every rule that I had set for myself when I made the promise that I would never see her again. I hadn't even laid eyes on her and already all of my old feelings, longings, and desires were coming back to me.

I made it to my room with only minutes to spare, and alone in the darkness, with my window open I waited for her...


	5. Chapter Four

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Chapter Four~

I couldn't seem to stand still. My legs and arms trembled and twitched as I tried to calm myself. What would she look like? I asked myself, wondering if she had changed greatly or only somewhat in the years that I was absent from her life. I wondered, too, if she would still recognize me; true in appearance I had not changed much, but my demeanor, my attitude, and the way that I saw the world had changed. So many questions and so few answers lead me to pace the room franticly. Though it had only been a few minutes since I had gotten home I continually watched the clock, looking up at it every couple of seconds. What if she had already come and gone, finding that I was not here and thinking that I didn't want to help her? What if everything was the same between us? What if everything was different?

My feet walked back and forth across my room, so much that I began to feel the floor sink beneath where I had made my path. I turned away walking to the other side of the room and standing by the door, my back to the open window. I traced my fingers along the small dark wood of the walls. It was old wood; I could feel the brittleness of it even if no one else could. I sighed; would she ever come?

Finally I felt a gust of wind slap across my back, chilling the parts of my arms that were exposed from my T-shirt and sending the small dark hairs up to their ends. I turned around fiercely, though in my head I knew what I would see when I turned around. Outside, against the darkness of the night, I saw her Golden Hawk perched on one of the branches of the chestnut just beyond my window. She sat there, staring me down with mythical golden eyes that shimmered like lit lanterns in the darkness. I couldn't help but bow my head at her grace and power. Before me stood the Golden Hawk, all but extinct to the world, and a sight that so few got to see anymore. She cried out in her form, a Hawk's roar that was just as commanding as any large predators' would be. The cry was sweet to my ears, and questioning in its tone. I answered it: "Come in."

She released her clenched claws evenly, and billowing her wings up she released herself from the branch, sending its leaves up and down as they missed her presence there. The grace of her body as it slid in through the open glass was indescribable, and I watched as she flew straight to the floor below. Still in her Hawk's form she looked up at me, I wondered if she was afraid to reveal her true self to me, and if that was why she delayed so long while still in this form. Her eyes were wild and pure as we stared at each other. I wondered what she could have been thinking when she was like this, the emotions that I would easily be able to read on her human face were undetectable to me while she was like this. Did she still see the old me, or someone new? Was she happy to see me, or had she only come because she was in trouble and needed my help?

A few seconds later she began to change. Her golden feathers began to glow in a hazed light that illuminated her like an angel, and for a few fleeting seconds she was hidden from my sight. I knew though that her limbs were starting to form again, and in her veins traveled the glowing golden liquid of her species. It took her only a moment before she truly became Danica again, and it was my turn to look her over now. Tall, slender legs as I remembered them were hidden by tight blue jeans. Against her torso was a white tank top, a tank top just tight enough to reveal the beautiful curves of her hips and just low enough to silhouette the line of cleavage from her breasts. Her face was the same, sweet but mesmerizing with cream colored skin and golden hair that still hung long down to her lower back and hid the golden feathers on her neck. I remembered long ago when I could hardly bring myself to touch those feathers and now all I longed for was to feel them again. She looked up at me with large eyes, and even though she wore tall boots I was still taller then her. "You look wonderful!" I choked, hoping that she wouldn't sense my apprehension.

She smiled. My heart almost caved into itself, and my throat closed up, and I wanted more then anything to take her in my arms. "Thank you, Zane," she hesitated, her voice light as though she found it hard as well to control her senses now that we were both in the same room again. "It is still Zane?" she questioned bitterly, her voice getting higher as though she had relaxed to my presence. "Or is it Alex?"

She was angry, and all of my hope burned away like ashes in a fire. "Danica, you have every right to be angry with me!" I pressed taking a step closer to her but only to have her take a step away in return, I wanted more then anything to take her in my arms and have every part of every moment we had been apart erased and forgotten from memory.

"Angry!?" she yelled, her voice so loud that I worried it would wake Simon and Diane from their sleep. "You left in the dead of the night Zane, not a word, or gesture of goodbye, only a cryptic letter telling me to go on with my life, but that you would always love me to spite your absence." She took a breath, I wanted to interrupt her but the sound of her voice was to precious to me even if she was screaming. "No goodbye, Zane, after everything that happened to us, and we finally had the chance for happiness and you just disappear. Did you ever really love me?"

My blood boiled. "Leaving you was the hardest thing that I've ever had to do, but it was the best for both of us in the end. You don't know how many letters I tore up that night, or how many times I turned around after leaving, eagerly wanting to go back to your side but-"

"But what?" she interrupted, the sting of her voice piercing me like a weapon. She waited for me to speak but there was nothing that I could say that would satisfy her. There was a silence between us that was driving us both mad, and I watched helplessly as a tear fell from her eye. "You have no idea what it was like without you, what its still like without you." I opened my mouth to speak but before I could she brought her finger up to my lips refusing to let me part them. It was the first time I had felt her touch in over five-hundred-years. I closed my eyes to it, breathed it as though it were the anecdote to every pain and ailment that I had ever felt. "Don't," she said, forcing my eyes to open to her words again. "Don't tell me that you have suffered as well," she paused taking her finger away from my lips. "You made the choice Zane, and because of it you have altered all of our destinies."

She turned away from me and walked past me as she made her way to the other side of the room. I was left with my back to her, and my eyes out the window where I saw Zachary standing. His form was vigilant, as he eagerly waited for her, unmoving, unspeaking, and unresponsive as I looked at him and he to me. "Why have you come?" I questioned, turning around to face her. She stood against the door, her hands folded over her chest as she held herself comfortingly.

She bit her lip, as if afraid to tell me, but the silence quickly became a worse enemy then the truth and her lips parted to speak. "Have you ever heard of Midnight?" she asked me, her voice laden with tears.

I had to think back in my memory before I remembered that Midnight was a compound of Vampires who lived and worked the slave trade of humans into their culture. "I have," I answered quickly.

"A few months ago, Zachary, some friends and I raided their compound, and successfully freed most of the slaves that they were holding captive. We went in masked, so that Jaguar and Jeshickah- the rulers there would not see our faces." She paused again, and she looked as though she was living inside the memory. I longed to give her peace from it. "But as we made our escape, we were ambushed, and in the fight I was unmasked and Jeshickah recognized me. She branded me with this..." Danica lifted up the edge of her white tank top and toward the side of her waste I saw a large indentation and gash that I recognized to be from a knife being plunged deep within her.

I couldn't stop myself; I went to her side and put my hand on the wound. Feeling the scar and torn flesh across her skin sent surges of lust through me and our eyes met suddenly as I knew she felt the same thing. Her hands rose to my shoulders and mine up to her cheeks. Her warm skin was like fire against my hands and I longed to be closer, deeper, inside her completely. Our faces were barely centimeters away from each other and I felt her hands pull my shoulders closer ever so slightly. My lips could almost feel hers on them and I leaned in, desperate for just one touch...

"We can't!" she pulled away, turning her face around and stepping beside me until she was back at the window again. I had to take a deep breath to control myself; my hands were trembling with the feel of her still on them. "Anyway," she continued as I tried to gain control by the doorway. "I was recognized, and now Jeshickah is after me, and I fear that she will not rest until I'm dead. She has sent assassins after us twice now, and both times Zachary and I barely escaped with our lives."

"Why do you need me, though?" I questioned, turning around to face her again. "Zachary seems like an able body kind of guy, and he is a Cobriana; so he must have some kind of fighting skills."

She smiled, a hopeful smile, and I felt that things had calmed down between us. We had argued, ashamed and afraid of the past but now we spoke as friends and two people who had once been companions, and not enemies. "Zachary is able bodied. He's strong like you; you and he are a lot alike; I think you will get along famously. But Zachary was not trained as you were, or any of the older generation was. He was never trained for war."

"And you're saying that I was."

"Yes," she took a step toward me. "Your duty as one of the princes of the Serpiente commanded certain duties, and learning to fight in all styles and situations is one of those duties. Zachary longs to protect me, but you are the only one who can."

"So you want me to protect you from Jeshickah and her thugs, right?"

"Yes!"

I was quiet. I sighed, and lifted my eyebrows. I hadn't fought in any combat style for years, and I didn't even know if I still could. "Danica, it's been so long since those days."

"I know," she pressed, taking another step closer to me until she was as close as she was before. "What you knew then, you know now. I have faith in you, Zane."

__

Faith? After all of this and everything that I had done to her, she still hade faith in me? I could see the desperation in her eyes, and I knew that I was her last hope. I knew that she did not doubt my skill, but I did. "What would you have me do?" My voice was light, as hers was in the beginning of our conversation.

"Zachary has arranged a plane ride to Europe, back to the old lands, Zane. We just have to stay there until Jeshickah loses our trail, or loses interest. Then you can leave and go back to your new life here."

_What if I don't want to leave you again?_

I agreed. There was hardly anything here to keep me, hardly anything when the alternative was she.

She smiled, and we embraced, her voice becoming a laugh as her long slender arms wrapped me in her warmth. I almost lost control for a moment again, but she pulled away and I watched her go to the window. She waved her arm out, and I imaged she was gesturing to Zachary who was still standing out front. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"I told him that you agreed to help me and he's going to get my things."

"How long has he been with you?" I said sometime later as we both sat on my bed. Our conversation quiet and playful; we did have a few hundred years to catch up on.

"Zachary has been with me since Irene's death," she hesitated, and I countered that the subject was hard for her to talk about and hard for me to listen to. "It happened in the invasion," was all that she said. I knew what she spoke off. The invasion of the human race into our sacred land had happened only a few short years after I left. I know that a Great War ensued, a war that forced all of the shapshifting kinds to join together, even if they themselves were at war, they had to join to combat the enemy. This allegiance did not work, and the forces of the men from the north were too great, and most of our population was killed. Those that survived left those lands forever, never to return. Our kingdoms were lost as well, mine, Danica's, everything. I swallowed hard, not wanting to hear or think anymore about it.

"Who is this?" She asked me, pulling from my bed side table a photograph taken a year ago that featured my friend Brian Tyake and myself standing in front of my car.

"Brian," I said matter-of-factly. "He's a friend."

Our conversation continued, and I watched as Danica laid her head against my pillow as we talked. Soon she became quiet and I knew that she had fallen asleep. Her exhausted eyes heavy and gently closed. Her slim body curled up slightly as she drifted further and further into what I hoped was a good dream. I wanted more then anything to crawl in beside her, wrap my arms around her waist and sleep with her next to me again. The loss of her body next to mine as I slept was a pain that still I hadn't recovered from. _"You are still so beautiful!" _I whispered, my voice prophetic as it wished that she could hear me and understand. I wanted it to be ok for us to be together again, though in my mind I could find no reason why we couldn't now. Something pulled at my heart though, a warning that was as spiteful and painful now as it was then: _"Your presence, so near to her, will kill her one day, and on that day there will be nothing that you can do to save her, or yourself."_ It was Vasili's words that still put dread in my heart and kept me from the one thing that I wanted most. The one thing that I had always wanted.

I reached my hand out to her face. A long strand of golden hair had fallen there whilst she slept, and I wanted to pull it away but before I reached my hand out I stopped, Vasili's words in my head again.

_Your presence, so near to her, will kill her one day!_

kill her one day!

kill her!


	6. Chapter Five

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Chapter Five~

Sometime during the night I fell asleep, and, being that it was the first breath of sleep that I had had in over twenty-four hours, it was enjoyed. I woke up shortly before sunrise; the world as well as the night was in a light blue haze. Though I had gone to bed on the other side of the bed from where Danica was sleeping, and had made sure that I stayed on my side the entire night, I woke to find her curled up beside me. Her right arm was extended over my chest and her head rested sheepishly on my arm. I wondered if she knew that it was me that she was sleeping next to. Had she, sometime during the night, woken to find me asleep and curled up to my side out of loneliness? Or perhaps while she slept she turned, and I was the nearest and only thing by her? Perhaps in her dream world she imagined that I was Zachary or another man, for someone had to have stolen her heart in my absence.

I didn't want to move, or open my eyes yet to the growing light of the day. The place that I was in now, here, with her, was enough for me now.

"I hate to interrupt," I heard someone speak, the voice commanding and slightly sarcastic, and I knew who it was before I opened my eyes. It was Zachary, standing over the bed as watchful as he had been last night.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, raising my form slightly, but still aware that Danica was so near, I raised only a little.

"Care to explain something to me?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "How is it that you plan on protecting Danica Shardae from those who hunt her if you can't even stop me from breaking in here?" He paused, and I frowned due to his pushiness. "I've been standing here for almost an hour, plenty of time to kill her if I were an assassin."

I whispered hoarsely to him, "Calm down!" I could feel Danica stir slightly but I did not want to wake her yet; her sleep was too peaceful and precious to disturb. Both Zachary and I were quiet and still as I untangled her arms from me, and with my hand I lifted her head slightly to free my other arm, and then, just as I had lifted it, I gently placed it on the pillow. I waited, we were no longer touching, but I was sure that my absence would wake her. It took her only a few seconds though, to curl back into a ball and continue sleeping. "Come on!' I commanded through stiff lips. His unwelcome presence bothered me, and I new, just by the way he had spoken her name, that he had deeply strong feelings for her.

Zachary followed me out of the bedroom and quietly we tip toed down the hall. I could tell by the amount of noise that Simon Acevedo had already gone to his offices to work- he was the big snorer in the family. Diane was a deep sleeper, so I wasn't worried about her. Zachary and I made our way to a closed door near the Acevedo's bedroom, and as I turned the rust colored knob slowly, I proceeded to open it. The door creaked and cracked as I slowly slid it open, but I was sure that the noise hadn't woken Diane in her room, or Danica in mine. Without asking him to, Zachary followed me up the old wooden stairs that lay behind the door. The stairs led to a small attic that I was sure neither of the Acevedo's had stepped foot in for years, but it was one of my favorite spots in the house. It was old and creaky, and the only part of the house that hadn't been redone and still held the old mystique of the time frame that it was built in. With my raised hand, I instructed Zachary to stay behind in the doorway. I had memorized where the creaks in the floorboard were due to this room being half above Simon and Diane's bedroom.

I walked across the floor like I was mimicking a dance. My feet stepped lightly in some places and more forceful in others. My pathway led me to an old trunk that was slightly hidden by boxes that were labeled after certain holidays like Christmas and Valentines. Old ornaments laced the edges of those boxes, I presumed, held ornaments that were kept out of sentimental value but beyond that they were never looked at again. I moved the boxes away carefully until I was free to open the trunk without incident. My fingers trailed along the elderly and worn lock as I turned the right numbers in the combination to open it.

When the lock was open I pulled it lose from its hinges and lifted the lid. Across the top was a woolen piece of cloth that when last I placed it there was brand new and intact but now stood thread bear and moth ridden. I pulled it away and underneath it were a few swords, the longest and most impressive had belonged to my father, and I had kept it safely all of these years incase of situations such as this arose. The other swords were small daggers of varying size, and underneath that was a large duffle bag made out of dyed linen. I removed all of the swords from the trunk, placing them neatly on the floor at me feet, and then placed each one, except for my father's, into the bag.

My way back to Zachary who still stood in the doorway was the same as when I left him, my feet making sure that every step was the same as it was before. "Here," I said, handing him the long sword. "It belonged to your grandfather." I watched for a moment as he held the sword up with pride and stature. Irene, or Danica, had obviously told him about our strong line of kings and warriors. He handed the sword back to me as we walked together down the attic stars and back to my room where I placed the blades on my desk.

Without a word spread between any of us, I turned from him and began to walk down the hall again. I could hear him follow me hastily. "So, what is my plan Zachary?" I whispered, making my way down the staircase that led to the lower parts of the house.

"I've arranged a flight; it leaves from Sea-Tac at 5:00 o'clock tonight."

"Five!" I turned toward him, my voice a little louder then it should have been. "By 5:00 it will be dark, and as we're being hunted by vampires, wouldn't it make more sense to travel during the day when they cannot follow us?"

He said nothing, but I knew that I was right about this, and for a moment I felt higher in rank that he was. Out of the corner of my eye as I continued to walk down the stairs I looked him over. He still wore what he wore the night before, a loose fitting light blue button up top and tan slacks that hung just below his ankles. His feet were bare, as before, and in the light, I could see that they were sooty and dirty from the ground and gravel. "Why don't you wear shoes?" I asked as we entered the kitchen and I placed the empty duffle bag on one of the counter tops.

"I don't like shoes," he said honestly. "I find them uncomfortable."

I opened up the refrigerator and grabbed what I could from it: two bottles of water, and an unopened loaf of bread. "Anyway," he said as I moved on to the pantry, grabbing cans food by the dozens, "the flight will take you to Europe, and from there you can go where you please, as long as it's safe for Danica and remote so Jeshickah will not think to look there. I'll join you," he finished, "as soon as I can."

I turned to him, my hands filled with cans of soup and vegetables: "You're in love with her, aren't you?" He didn't answer me, but I could tell by the longing on his face that it was true. I didn't blame him. Danica was not only beautiful, but also sweet natured and vivacious; both were components that were highly attractive in a women. I smiled at him, unthreatened by his presence in her life.

"You've changed, Zane," he said to me as I began to place all of the food in the duffle bag.

"How would you know? You and I have only seen each other once, and that was long before you could remember."

"When I was a child," he began his voice changing in tone slightly as he went into his story, "my mother would tell me stories of the courageous and fearless King of the Serpiente's Zane Cobriana, my uncle and her brother. She told me how he always fought for good and stayed true and loyal to his lady Danica."

"And I am no longer like this?" I questioned, not seeing the difference from the me then to the me now.

He tilted his head to me, squinting his eyes: "Yes."

The remainder of the morning was calm, as the night had been, unlike Zachary feared. Danica awoke sometime after we returned up stairs and Zachary greeted her warmly, as though she had been in a coma for long years and he had feared that she'd never wake up. I handed the duffle bag to him, though I still held my father's sword in my hand, and told them both to go and wait in the car for me. I knew that we had to leave now, before the world awoke. In my room alone, I looked at all of the things that made up my life for the last few years. Alex Acevedo's years.

I put those days to rest as I left the room, truly, for the last time. Still holding the sword in my hand, I laced on my leather jacket. The walk down the hall was a strange one; it was always strange for me when I left a family that I had been with long. But this one, like no other, was strange because I wasn't going from one person to a new person. I would not create a new identity for myself after this; I would go back to being Zane, a personality and a skin that I had not worn in decades. My task was daunting, considering I had no idea how Zane, the king from so long ago, would fit into this modern world, and it scared me slightly. Before leaving, I peaked my head into the Acevedo's bedroom. It was just Diane, alone sleeping soundly against the safety of warm blankets. I wondered what my absence would do to her. Would she recover from it? I doubted it, knowing that she was still in heavy grief over her daughter's death. For a moment I was sorry that I had ever come here, knowing that when I left I would cause the same, if not more, pain that there had been at my arrival.

In my mind I had memorized all of Diane's prayers, her prayers for Christina and her prayers for me. How would they change when I was gone?

I didn't linger long, and I forced myself to put this life here to peace before I set out for another one. I walked down the stairs fast, clutching my father's weapon tightly around my palm and fingers. I couldn't even imagine what he would think if he could see me now. His once proud son ruined and damaged from too many years of heart ache. Perhaps he could see me. I saw him perched in some kind of heaven, shaking his head at the fall of his bloodline. I shoved my memories and fears away as I stepped through the front door and outside into the world that loomed before me like a road.

The sun had mostly risen now, and the light blue haze that I had awoken to was all but faded into a pale morning. From the doorway I could see Zachary and Danica leaned up against the side of my car at the curb. _I'll miss you_, he mouthed to her from where they stood. I could not hear their voices, but I knew that they were speaking. _And I you_, she replied placing her hand on his cheek, leaving me to watch as they embraced. _Be careful_, he pressed, while his head hung over her shoulder. She let go of him and looked him in the eye, turning her head slightly so that I couldn't see what she said to him next. He placed his hands on her shoulders and squeezed slightly; I could tell that leaving her was painful for him.

He let go of her a few seconds later and turned away, his pace slow at first but soon he was running away. Before he was gone from my sight he looked back at me, sending me a look that I could only decipher as a warning to watch out for her or else. I wondered if they were lovers. 


	7. Chapter Six

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Chapter Six~

"How long have you been living here?" Danica asked, her long golden locks falling over her shoulder and blending into her white tank top as I turned a sharp right on a street corner a few hours after leaving the Acevedo house. My hands were stretched out over the steering wheel and my fingers clutching to the thick binding hard.

"A while..." I began but stopped short of details there. "You?" I wanted to get away from the subject.

"Zachary and I only just arrived a few days ago. Before that we were living in Main."

"You and he are?" The thought of what I was sure her answer would be made me weary, but I was desperate to know just the same.

"What?" she questioned lightly, her eyebrows raised and for a second I believed that she had no idea what I was talking about.

"You're involved," I hesitated, "aren't you?" The look on her face changed within the blink of my eye. Her once calm expression was furrowed into twisted shock and anger.

Her lips clenched tightly together as she said: "How could you think that Zane?" She turned away from me, disgusted, and I watched as she turned to face the window completely until her emotion filled face was hidden from me.

I didn't understand her reaction; it had been painfully obvious to me that something either had or still was going on between them. "You made no pains to hide anything between the two of you." The image of her hand on Zachary's face slapped into my mind like a hard shock, and I had to take a deep breath to release it from me.

"How dare you judge me!"

I was left silent, my words had betrayed me, and I had boxed myself into a corner that I could see no escape from. I wanted to reach out to her; I wanted to know. She was such a mystery to me now. She was filled with memories and happy moments as well as sad ones that I had no idea of. Once, long ago, I knew her better then I knew myself, but now she was as mystifying as a stranger that I was unexplainably drawn to. "I'm sorry..." I began, but hade no idea what to say after that. My mind was full of speeches profiling my undying love and devotion to her, but I had no idea how to say them, or if I was even right to say them anymore.

"It's not what you think."

"Your relationship?"

"He's like a son to me. Anything more is just your jealousy working over time."

"Jealousy?"

"You can't handle the thought that you are no longer my only companion."

She reminded me of a schoolgirl pouting because she couldn't have her way; surely we could have a conversation and not act like three-year-olds. In the moments of silence that followed, I pondered what she had said. I was jealous, more jealous then I had ever been in my life. Just thinking of another man touching her or being with her made my blood boil and my skin crawl. "I'm sorry," my apology ingenuous, and I knew that she sensed that. "You're right; it's not my place to judge you, or is it my place anymore to think that I could judge you. It's just that..."

"What?" she asked, but I said nothing more. The admission that my feelings were the same when it was clear that hers were not was too hard for me to speak out loud. I turned to face the road head on. We had hours to kill, and I was unsure of what our conversation would turn to if I wasn't driving. At least this way I had a reason to stay on my side of the vehicle. I drove the Seattle streets in circles- she had no idea how to get around the city, so I don't think she noticed. I went from street to street, from University Place to Elliot and down to the waterfront. We said nothing after that, and I wondered if it was because she was waiting for me to finish what I had been saying before. I had no idea; her mind was a closed box to me.

"I'm sorry," she finally spoke, breaking the silence, though I couldn't imagine what she had to be sorry for. "I should not have spoken to you like that; you are going out of your way to help me." She took a breath, "But if you really knew Zachary, then you would know that what your suggesting is preposterous if nothing else."

My voice was meek, "That's not what I saw."

She said nothing to counter or correct me, and I knew that she knew my suspicions were correct.

Our conversation ended again, and several long minutes past before I asked: "Where is Rei?"

She was caught off guard by my question, and I could only guess that his fate, like so many others that had been our friends, was bleak at best. "He was killed in the invasion." I didn't press; the past was painful for us all, and I took a moment of silence in my mind for the good solider and friend. I remembered his many heroic deeds and hung my head in shame that I had not been there to fight beside him in the end.

By 4:30, the sun was beginning to set, and I turned the car into the parking garage at Sea-Tac. I was unsure of this, if Danica was being hunted by these Vampire assassins, I would have preferred leaving our travels to the day time and not skulking around dark parking garages at sunset and boarding planes at night. I parked the red corvette in what I presumed would be a safe place, in-between a wall and a post; I couldn't even guess at the next time that I might see it. No doubt that Simon and Diane would search the city when they realized I was missing, and they'd probably find the car here eventually. I thought about leaving a note for them inside.

Danica, recognizing the chill of the oncoming night, pulled on a thin jacket made of Swede that I doubted would keep her fully warm in the nighttime Seattle cold and wherever else it was that we were headed. "Common," I pressed gently, "we're going to be late."

We both got out of the car sheepishly, neither really knowing what the coming days would bring us. Before locking the car, I went to the trunk where I knew my duffle bag was, and I presumed her things were there as well. My father's sword was laid out neatly on top of everything, and I relaxed slightly when I ran my fingers along its powerful surface. "How exactly do you plan on taking that on an airplane?" she asked, looking over my shoulder. I didn't answer her, but her question was festering in my mind. How would I get this sword and all of the weapons onto the plane? I knew that there were firm rules now a days as to what was appropriate and what was not in terms of luggage, and I guessed the knives and swords were not on that list. I bit my lip in agitation, having no solution to the problem that had come to me.

She grabbed hold of my arm tightly, dragging me away from my task at hand. "Zane, look!" she said, and I followed the line of her vision to the other side of the dark parking lot where in the glow of the florescent light we both saw the outline of a small boy. He was huddled against the concrete barrier and from where we stood we could hear light sobs and murmurings. Without looking back at me, Danica ran to him, and I, leaving the car unattended, ran after her quickly. Something about this wasn't right.

"Are you all right?" she asked, kneeling down to the boy who, from sight, looked no older then twelve. She placed her hand gently on his arm, as if to rouse him from his weeping, and I watched helplessly as the child raised its head, revealing a set of sharp extended fangs that looked ready for the killing. I grabbed the top of Danica's coat and forcefully had to pull her to her feet to get her away from the boy who, by then, was only inches away from her neck. Once she was standing, she curled against me, wrapping her arms about my back for support. I could tell that she was more betrayed by the child's action then by his attempt on her life.

My eyes narrowed as I searched out what was seeable to me in the dark parking lot, and I counted at least twelve or more adult vampires coming at us from each side, and the little boy, small though he was, but just as dangerous, was at our feet...


	8. Chapter Seven

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Chapter Seven~

I held onto her possessively, protectively pulling her in back of me and narrowly missing the young vampires extended hand and sharp desire-filled teeth. She was a precious jewel to me, and I would have preferred leaving her again, this time forever, then holding her dead in my arms. My eyes widened; I could see vampires at all sides of us. From first glance I counted ten total, some men and some woman, but all held the same agelessly jaded vampire face. Their blood-lust was revealed in their eyes, but the abjection of their mission, whether it was to take Danica alive to Jeshickah or kill her, I couldn't be sure.

Every vampire that approached us wore pure black, tightly worn black shirts that glimmered with the shape and contact of the men's well-built chest muscles and arms while emphasizing every woman's ageless, sizable breasts. Their hair was silky and long, some straight as ribbons and others curled with great detail; each individual curl was a masterpiece.

"That is the Shardae!" one of the vampire men shouted, pointing his pale finger in our direction. The motion caused all of the others to quicken their pace coming toward us.

I looked back to the car; it was at least ten feet away, and there would be no time to get the weapons in the back before they reached us. Danica grabbed onto my shoulder, an action that told me that she was afraid, but at the same time I knew that she would fight if she had to.

"Shardae!" a female vampire said, mocking the other man's voice. She was young with ruby red lips. "Fancy meeting you here." I tightened my grip around Danica's waist, the gesture was protective, and I could tell that the female vampire was not expecting me, or my protective nature to be at her side. The vampire looked into my eyes, fierce light orbs of pale green that would have held me hypnotically had I not looked away when I did. "Interesting," she smirked, lifting her hand up and brushing it lightly across my cheek. I hastily bated it away, her touch ice cold. "And who might you be?"

"He is Zane Cobriana, leader and king of the long dead Serpiente nation!" I heard a scratching on the ceiling of the parking garage, which caused me to look up. It was almost like boots dragging on coarse floor. My mouth opened slightly as my vision beheld a strikingly tall vampire that stood grachesly out amongst the others. He was standing on the ceiling, his thick black boots scrapping against the high top as he walked toward us. His form was magnanimous, his face belonging on a seventeenth century portrait, but his wardrobe suggested twenty-first century Goth. When he was a few feet away from us, he curled his torso to his knees and jumped, flipping his body flawlessly until he landed up right on the ground before us. Across his bare chest he wore a chain mail shirt, and the force of his jump sent them jingling as he strutted towards Danica and I, the other vampires easily parting to accommodate his path.

"Zane Cobriana!" he said again, as though my name were a litany to him.

"Who are you?" I shouted; I could tell that this vampire had immense strength, and I doubted if I would be able to win in combat against him, though perhaps if he grew to fear me before a confrontation I would have some kind of leverage.

He smiled, showing pearly white teeth behind full pink lips: "My name is Theron Sero, and I've heard many things about you," he hesitated, his eyes glazing over to Danica and then back to me, "Your Highness." His words caught me off guard slightly; no one had addressed me as king in enough years that I couldn't even fathom when the last time was. "I have no quarrel with you," he began, "and you're free to go. My business is with Shardae!"

_Shardae! _I grasped at his words to her, and I knew that most of the world knew Danica as simply Shardae and only the few people that she considered to be friends and family were allowed to call her Danica. I guessed that Danica and this Theron were not on good terms.

"If you have quarrel with Danica, then you have quarrel with me!" I saw Theron and the other vampires narrow their vision on me. I could feel Danica's gaze behind me. They were all shocked, not expecting my admission of guilt. For guilty I was if I openly sided with their enemy.

Theron looked displaced; I don't know how it was possible or why but I could tell that he admired me slightly, and that he was saddened and had not expected my words.

"Very well!" yelled the female vampire from before, her eyes hovering over my body as if thinking of what she could do to it.

"Very well!" Theron mimicked and with the gesture of his hand the ten vampires lying in wait came at us. Their unnatural strength mounted, and their fangs ready to sink into our flesh and suck the very life from our bones. 

Danica and I both assumed the fighting position, and I was amazed as I watched out of the corner of my eye at how much her skills at fighting had improved. Danica and I fought our hardest, but we were greatly outnumbered and were quickly taken over. Two vampires restrained me forcefully, holding my arms at my sides high enough to knock them out of alignment if I should move the slightest bit incorrectly. I didn't care though, I could clearly see from where I was restrained that two more vampires had Danica restrained in much the same way, and the female vampire that spoke to me before was preparing to sink her teeth into Danica's neck. "Leave her alone!" I commanded, my voice easily taking on the presence of the king that it once had been attached to.

"I'll kill you if you touch her!"

I caught a quick glance from Danica, her eyes furrowed and swelling as though she wanted to cry out and confess. Her nature became that of a dieing woman on her deathbed. I wanted to reach out to her, hold her in my arms once more and tell her everything that I had done had been a mistake. I should have stayed, or come back sooner when our world was destroyed. I should have searched her out, and then, if I had, I could be at the brink of death with her, and perhaps it wouldn't be so bad for the both of us now. Her chest was rising and falling violently as she helplessly squirmed her slim body to get away from the clutches of the deadly vampire coming after her.

"Leave her!" Theron spoke. He had been standing watching the fight and our capture from a few feet away this whole time. He stood, his arms crossed, contemplating the situation with one of his hands rolled into a ball and supporting his chin. "Jeshickah wants her alive!"

"And what about him?" the vampire woman asked quickly, her blood-lust turning from Danica to me in a matter of seconds.

"Bring him too; we might find use for him yet."

I tried to free myself, twisting and curling my arms in the hope that I would get away from my captors' clutches. It was useless, and I quickly felt a clenched fist punch its bony potency into the side of my face. My body collapsed, and my limbs became lifeless under the force of the unnatural blow. A regular punch was one thing, but a vampire's punch was like drinking poison, the pain coursing through you until you felt it everywhere, and it debilitated you.

Through half open eyelids I watched the same man who had punched me approach Danica, and helplessly I watched as he did the same to her. "Don't," I chocked, blood pouring from my mouth as I tired to speak.

"Get the cars!" I heard Theron order, but my eyes were closed and I couldn't see whom he was talking to.

The next few minutes were hazy as I weaved in and out of conciseness. I remember being released and feeling the cold cement floor against my face, the chill welcoming against my bruised and bloodied features. I felt hands on me a few seconds latter, and clammy fingers interlaced rope around my wrists and ankles, binding me into stillness. I then felt something fall next to me and through my half-awake, half-asleep state I realized that it was Danica, suffering from the same fate as I was, the sting of the unusual vampires blow incapacitating us both. I heard the squeal of cars making sharp turns next. Theron's cars.

I felt my body being lifted up, then forcefully shoved into the car. Soft leather was felt beneath my unresponsive form. I felt Danica there, too, her body leaning up against mine, helpless as I was. The last thing that I remember was Theron saying: "Sedate them both."


	9. Chapter Eight

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Chapter Eight~

I did not know how many hours or days must have passed before I awoke, but when I did, it was dark. My skin itched and crawled with poison that still lead traces in my blood. I wanted desperately to scratch and scrap at my flesh until the unbearable sensation departed me, but my hands were bound behind my back, and no matter how much I struggled I could not free myself. I recognized that I was in a car long before I realized where I was, or where my captors were taking me. I felt the lull of the motion as I woke up, and I struggled to see in the pitch-blackness.

We were on a road; the drive was smooth like pavement rather then harsh terrain. We were in an isolated place though, for there were no streetlights or signs of any kind that I could make out. Trees lined the road that we traveled; they were old trees, as tall as sky scrappers. Where were they taking us? In the front seat of the car sat what appeared to be two men, though through the lack of light they could have been women. All I saw of them was the back of their heads and their arms. I sat in the backseat, with Danica.

Danica? I turned to my side, thinking that she would be in the same daze that I was or perhaps still sleeping, the effect of the drugs that were given to us still holding her in a lack luster coma. She was not sleeping though, nor just waking up as I was. She sat upright, her back and shoulders straight and to me looked wide awake. Through the dark I could see that her hands and feet were tide much the same way that mine were and her gaze permanently pressed out of the tinted glass window. Was she looking to the forest or the sky? Was she contemplating a get away? "Danica?" through my lips my voice was hoarse, and crackly. I myself could barely hear it, I couldn't imagine that she had. But she did, turning her face to me and a forced smile formed across her dry lips. By the light of the moon that could barely be seen through the trees I could see a large bruise against her cheek and the swollen lump was obscurely visible against her profile. "Are you all right?" I asked first, she didn't answer in words; she just nodded her head slightly. She looked distracted, as though she longed to look back out the window and have me still in whatever state I had been in before. "How long have you been awake?" I asked, hoping that this time she would answer.

"Since yesterday."

Silence.

I turned away from her, aware that she had no desire to talk, but if she had woken up yesterday then we had been on the road longer then two nights. We could only travel by night if vampires were our chauffeurs, so we must have stayed somewhere during the day. "I'm sorry Zane." Her plight filled voice sent my head turning back to face her immediately.

"Sorry for what?"

She hesitated, taking an exhausted breath between half swollen lips that I could tell must have been difficult for her. "I'm sorry that I ever got you involved." She was silent again, and thought that that was all that she had to say, but she soon quickly spoke again: "It's over Zane, you tried, but from this point on, no matter what either of us do. I'm dead." I opened my mouth to speak, feeling the pain in my own cheek intensify with the hasty movement, but she quickly stopped me again. "Listen Zane, Jeshickah has no quarrel with you, and if you amuse her, she will free you... eventually."

I wanted to take her in my arms again, but like always I was restrained, either emotionally or physically. I wanted to tell her that her death was my death, that in my heart she has always been and will always be my wife. That every second that I was away form her, my heart broke. But like always, I was silent. To her, my silence meant that I would do as she instructed. Humor Jeshickah and eventually get away, go back to the shell of existence that I had before she came back into my life.

I would not do that though, no matter what factors I had to deal with, I would go with her until the end.

I would die for her.

I would die with her.

There was a silence between the two of us that was slow as the hours passed. The night got darker, and then began to get lighter. I couldn't help but think that it was that light at the end of the tunnel.

Finally, on the cusp of daybreak a large stone structure came into view and as we got closer to it, it loomed up before us like an ancient tower belonging to the dead kings of old. Its bordering walls were guarded by Avian shapshifters, crow and falcon alike, and as the car continued to drive further into the compound I saw many more shapshifting kinds, Mistari, Serpiente, and more Avian's. I wondered if they knew that they watched the last king to sit on the throne at Serpiente Keep, and the last queen to rule over the Avian's were before them now. Watching them, as they betrayed everything that their ancestors stood for and believed in. With our hands still bound, but our feet untied, Danica and I were lead into the compound that I had only heard stories about. Midnight. Its walls were dark and gloomy, lit by poor light to which I could not find the source. Dancia was lead ahead of me, which I preferred. I made myself believe that no harm could come to her as long as I was close by. We seemed to be going to the same place, so I was relatively calm for the few minutes that it took to walk our way to our destination.

What I took to be a throne room was lavishly set, and decorated with million dollar perfected. It went far beyond what I expected, and far beyond what I had ever seen in any Castle or Keep.

"Shardae, I am so pleased that you could join us!" said a woman that I presumed to be Jeshickah. I was struck by her presence, and her height, for she towered over both Danica and I easily. Danica said nothing as Jeshickah poured more lies about how wonderful it was to have her as a guest. The woman was insane. She pulled at Danica's face, feeling with the back of her hand the soft skin of Danica's cheeks and then running it down the line of silky golden hair. Her hand reached clear down to Danica's abdomen. After no reaction to her Lover-like behavior she said: "Take her away, she knows well what the cost of disobeying me is!"

They took her away from me. I struggled, to no avail, to follow freely but my captor's hands were strong and unrelenting. "And who is this?" Jeshickah questioned, and I knew that she wanted me to answer, but I didn't. I wanted to infuriate her enough so that I could go with Danica.

"He is Zane Cobriana," Theron Sero's voice said, coming into the room from behind where I was standing. I watched as he circled me, his eyes stalking mine and then shifting to hers. He approached her, and she welcomed him. Allowing him to place his extended arm around her waist and nuzzle with his head against her neck. "He's the missing king of the Serpiente." She seemed amused with this idea, playing a leverage game with everyone around her. We all knew that she was in control.

"Would you like to..." she began, but there was no real need to finish. She was addressing Theron and with a simple glance into his heightened face I could tell that he held some hidden prepuce for taking me all this way. She smiled at his awkward happiness, and I was left wondering what they both were thinking. She bent her head to him, which was slightly taller then his was, and he kissed her. Full on the mouth. I watched as their cheekbones curved and swayed with the force of their passionate embrace. They were both like drug addicted teenagers, the touch of the other enough to satisfy their lust for days. I wondered then if they were truly lovers, or if this was only an unceremonious event that neither had experienced in a while. She raised her hand, and cold slender fingers traced small designs on his cheek as he tried to press his mouth closer to hers. She moved her fingers down his neck, feeling the endeavor of his muscles and veins as he continued to be forceful with her. Her hand stopped just above his left breast and her fingers twirled at his chain mail shirt, no doubt feeling the icy flesh that remained slightly exposed their.

Finally they parted from each other, leaving me believing that they were lovers in the end. "Follow me!" he commanded, leaving Jeshickah's side and walking in front of me. The guard's hands were tighter as we moved deeper into Midnight.

Theron Sero, pleased and excited with his sudden tryst with the vampire leader Jeshickah, lead me though a long and narrow hallway. There were doors at either side, some open, other's closed. I kept my eye on them, thinking that perhaps Danica had been taken to one of them. The walls were painted a dark color, a black, or a purple, but in the dim light I couldn't really tell. "Don't worry your highness," he began looking back at me as I was dragged behind him, "only a bit further."

Who was this man? And why was he treating me in such a way? I couldn't tell if it was all a game to get my guard down, or he really was pleased that he had found me.

We continued to make our way down the unending corridor and my eyes were still fixed on all of the open doors. I wanted to know where Danica was. If she was being hurt, I had to help her.

Toward the end of the corridor we came upon one open door that had an unusual amount of light coming from inside. The light caught my eye; it was as bright as a surgical room in a hospital with an unnatural glow, and the same glow that I realized so many people must have died to. Inside I could see, though only for a second, as two men held Danica up and proceeded to lift her up to a surgical table. I dug my feet into the hard floor to stop myself. She was lifeless, and unmoving. Was she dead? Would I not be able to save her? Was it too late to begin again with her? I called out her name, but she did not answer...


	10. Chapter Nine

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Chapter Nine~

The vampire guards did not allow my protest to continue; they effortlessly lifted my arms and kicked with heavy boots at the base of my knees, making my legs go out and easier for them to carry me along. As we turned the corner, I got my last sight of Danica. She had still not moved, and they had removed most of her clothing, leaving her in just jeans and her white tank top. Her hair was dripping with perspiration. "Danica!" I yelled, grabbing onto the wall with my arms, my only limbs that were still in my control. I held myself there, if only for a moment, trying to make her wake up, in part to reassure myself that she was still alive. I was hastily pulled away, though, until I too was almost lifeless, and following my capture to what I was sure was my own death...

I was not dead, as I was taken into an old fashioned bedroom. Long dark curtains hung to the floor and were pulled shut, covering what I took only to be a window. A four poster bed sat largely in the center of the room and the guards quickly laid me upon it, tying my hands and feet to each of the four corners. The room had two or three candles lit across table tops and near a book shelf covered with old, musty books, but the light was hardly enough to see by, and Theron quickly began to light more.

After the guards had finished tying me up, they turned to Theron for further instruction. For a moment Theron didn't notice them; their dog like faces waiting for their masters call. Theron was still lighting candles, and it took him a moment to realize this. He said nothing as he placed a candle on a small tabletop in the middle of the room, almost adjacent to me, but he waved his hand in a small circle and the guards departed with further blank faces.

"What is this?" I demanded, wondering about why I was here and what was planned to be done to me. I also took in my surroundings carefully. The room itself was a carbon copy of any room that you would have found in any mansion in the seventeenth century, right down to the wicks that burned blue flames onto the candles. Theron took his time to answer me. He went about the room methodically lighting each and every candle; there must have been hundreds, and he seemed to enjoy lighting all of them. His face lit up slightly more with each flame that he created.

"This," he said huskily, lifting his eyes from the blue flame underneath his eyes, his gaze trying to hold me in a hypnotic stare. I wouldn't let him. "This is the black room." He said looking back toward the flame, unfazed by my resistance.

"Take me to Danica!" I protested. What else could I do?

"You can no longer help Danica," he said, his voice almost as hypnotic as his eyes. "Danica has made her choices, and now she must suffer for her crimes."

"What crimes? What as she done?"

He fell silent again, as he moved around the room creating more flames. His rust colored curls fell into his face slightly around his forehead and eyes as he bent down to light the lower candles. "The problem with Danica is that she wants to be an angel to all, and she forgets that there is evil in this world that doesn't share the same views."

Strangely, that sounded like Danica, and the story that she told me back in the Acevedo house came back to me. She helped some of the human slaves here escape.

"It's really is an honor, your highness," he told me again. He had finished lighting the candles and the room and it holds an eerie glow over me. He walked from one side of the four poster bed to the other as he said: "Under better circumstances you and I could have gotten along famously."

My eyes furrowed, "What do you mean?"

He slid his boots over to a book shelf that was against the wall on the right side of me. It was dark, and made from old wood and cracking slightly from old and worn out paint. His chain mail shirt dangled and jingled in his movements. He skid his finger along the bindings of the rows and rows of old books that line it. I could hear the slick of his finger as it slid over the leather coverings. "Here," he said, pulling out an old book from the stack and holding it up to his face, tilting it beneath one of the candles that he lit. He read for a moment, his lips silently mimicking the words that he heard in his head. He turned back to me some time later. "When I was a boy living in Brussels, I found a book in my grandfather's library," he explained to me, and I tried to picture this gothic youth in the earlier century that he was describing. "It was autumn, in late 1654. My grandfather loved books, every room was filled with books, but his library was quiet a feat, and people came from miles around to see its rows lined with thousands of books. One day I went in and in his hands was this book." He held the book up for me to see the cover, but I was too far away to read a title. "It was his favorite, and he always had it with him. "Our family legacy" he called it. He said that his great-grandfather wrote it on parchment in old Gaelic before there was a printing press. The manuscript was transferred to son after son until my Grandfather had it professionally printed. Only one copy was made and this is it."

I couldn't tell if Theron was stalling or if he just enjoyed telling the story, but I was longing for him to get to the point. "Well what is it?" I asked.

"My ancestor Adhamh Sero traveled to the old lands to the east with his king and fellow countrymen. He came to a land, filled with strange creatures, which as he said could change from man to beast at their own will. He called them Shapshifters, and as far as I know he was the first person to originate that name for your people. Adhamh grew to love your people; he traveled amongst the Avians, the Mistari, and then to the Serpeinte. He wrote an entry every day that he stayed amongst them, and came to learn their language, though he could never learn their magics." Theron took a breath, a long breath, and I watched as he clutched the old worn pages between his fingers. "Adhamh's king and the other soldiers did not share his love for these strange people from the east and desired their land more then the stability of its people. The king attacked, and Adhamh did everything in his power to stop his king and fellow countrymen, but it was to late, and the people that he loved came to perish, or fear or hate him for what he was. A human man."

"What does any of this have to do with me?" I asked, understanding the meaning behind his story, but by this time I was already gone and far away from those lands; I was living amongst the human men and had no idea at the time as to what was going on back in my homeland.

"Don't you see Zane?" he begged, coming closer to me from the bookshelf until he was almost standing over me. "Adhamh came to the Serpiente land where he met a young Queen named Irene who tolled him the great stories of her lost older brother, the true king of her people. Zane Cobriana." My mouth was open; _Irene had said that about me_, and her pride for me lifted my spirits slightly. "I grew up with my Grandfather telling me stories about you, Zane, about the wars that you fought in, the battles you won, the obstacles that you had to face to help your people." He was like a young child meeting his hero for the first time and begging him remember him always. I was not like that, though.

"I've never been a hero," I stated plainly and a frown slowly formed across his face. "I did what I did because I had no other choice. Had I the choice, my brothers would have all lived to see the throne, and I made not to sit upon it. Had I the choice, my father would have lived a long and happy life after ruling instead of being murdered in the dead of the night as he sat on his throne, worrying about how he could save his people. My mother, my sisters, they all would have lived to old age to watch their children, and their children's children all grow up happy and safe. Had I the choice, I would have chosen to be a simpleton rather then a prince, if not for the sake of my sanity then for the sake of Danica who never would have come to meet me." I stopped, I could think of so many more things that I would change but I knew that I had said too much already.

He opened his mouth to speak but it was not English that came out, or any other language that I would have expected. It was the old Serpiente tongue, the speech that had been taught to me by scholars when I was a child. "We are born, to be who were are born to be," he said to me. His ease with the language was remarkable, and up to that moment I had no idea that humans could learn it, let alone speak it with fluency. Its range and its motion was the complete opposite of English and most other languages with sounds that no human ear had heard before. "How... ?" I wondered.

"Adhamh also learned the language and wrote it down for my grandfather and myself to later learn."

"What is it that you want out of all of this, Theron?"

"To learn what you know. To know the secrets of your people, your ways."

"But you are vampire, not Shapshifter."

"Does it matter? I can learn well when you teach me."

"I will never teach you our ways, Theron, you do not deserve to know them." His face hardened suddenly, as though I had ripped out his soul and was tearing it to shreds in front of him. I knew that he had not expected that answer.

"Fine!" he yelled, his lips tightly curled together underneath a clenched jaw line. "You can stay here and rot for all I care then." He turned and walked straight for the door, his grandfather's old book still in his hands. When he got to the door he turned back to me, his face still twisted with anger. "Just remember, while you lie here helpless, your precious Danica is being tortured to death!"

I immediately moved up to lunge at him, but my restraints held me back, and he left the room cackling wildly.


	11. Chapter Ten

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Chapter Ten~

I struggled to free myself all night.

I pulled and yanked my arms up, clashing cold hard metal against my skin. I was strong, but not strong enough to escape from these chains. I gave up, but the fleeting image that I had caught of Danica, her limp arms and body held up by vampires who had done God only knows what, and what might have happened afterward pierced me like the scent of death. It powered me to find a way to free myself, if not for me, then for her. I pulled my arms up again, feeling flexed muscles behind my T-shirt. No matter how much force I used, I could not release myself; these chains that bounded me did so not only physically but also emotionally.

I drifted off to sleep sometime during the night, having spent so many hours trying to free myself I was exhausted. A terrible thirst overtook me and my mouth dried like a furnace. My lips became two flames, lapping up any source of moisture that they could find. I had no idea when the last time was that I had drank anything; I still wasn't entirely sure how long I had sat unconscious in the backseat of Theron's car with Danica.

_Danica! _I had lost her forever now, and the pain that I felt in her loss was worse then any other that I had ever encountered.

My eyelids were dropping, not entirely closed and not entirely open. I watched as blue-orange flames flickered and sizzled until they had burned into their centers losing all but a fallen icicle of wax that was left hanging and dried before reaching the floor.

I lay in a kind of catatonic state for hours. I gave up, and I longed for the taste of death on my dry lips and Danica's spirit guiding me into whatever came next. I wanted all the pain to die. I wanted myself to die.

My eyes flickered open slightly when I heard a loud bang from outside the window that I took only to be thunder. Its rolling scream followed closely by the burst of white thunder that smashed through the closed curtains easily and lit the room in a ghostly light.

The light was like acid to my eyes, scratching and scrapping at the even balance of darkness that they had been used to all night.

The light flashed again; I turned my head away, burying it underneath my chained arm. By then, I had lost all of my will to survive. The lightning was followed seconds later by another clap of thunder. I hung my head lower. I was longing for death again, and my capture of it was just out of my reach; lying like poison on my dried lips, I was ever ready to take it. It was in this state that I heard Diane Acevedo's voice in my head, ringing like a gallant bell atop a high steeple: "Bless Alex for his courage and let him know how much we love him and regret that he did not come to us sooner." She had loved me, even though I was not her flesh and blood as she thought I was, yet she believed in me. Why could I not believe in myself? She had loved me truly for who I was, and under no facade or yoke of family or ideals; she had loved me and I left her without even saying goodbye. Just as I had left Danica, whom more then anything treasured me as her lover and companion and not just her king and husband. She had loved me, and like Diane I had left her and never said goodbye. Through my closed eyes I could see Diane Acevedo's old and grief-ridden fingertips as they grazed along the silver beads of her rosary. I wondered if she still prayed for me, even after I had left and probably would never return to her. What would she say now? "Heavenly Father above, allow Alex to find his true path in life and let him live his life upon it happily." Her words were useless to me now, her prayers should be given to wiser and more deserving people like Danica, who I now envisioned had died alone in a closed off room in this compound.

The room that Theron had left me in was undoubtedly silent; through my closed eyes I could still see the translucent glow of thunder, but the thunder had quieted slightly, my ears were no longer a keen to its noises. My body was no longer willing to hear it. I was slipping further and further into a place that was strange to me. However, through its strangeness, it was inviting and through that veil of feeling and numbness I began to fade within. No longer Alex, no longer Zane, I had become a part of the numbness itself. Nameless, faceless, alone in the abyss of time and space and spinning faster on the wheel of destiny then ever before...

My eyes opened suddenly; the thunder and sounds of the compound came back to my ears. I felt hands on me - warm tiny palms and fingertips pressing at my chest and face. I searched the space around me but my vision had blurred. "_Who_?" I managed to choke out, still not able to see around me. Twitching my body I asked and again, and I heard a gasp of surprise from someone else in the room. I opened my eyes wider, trying to search the stranger out in the darkness. I jumped slightly when the roll of thunder barked again; louder then I had ever heard it before. Lightning flashed and in the corner of the room I saw the outlined figure of a small girl.

I could tell that the figure in the dark was female; even through my blurred vision I could make out her slender and curvaceous form and gentle physic. She was meek and completely foreign in that I had never seen her before. I wanted to reach out to her but my chained arms prevented me. With outstretched fingers I spoke to her: "_Help me_!" My voice was barely a whisper, cold and clammy. She looked afraid, and her petite form jumped slightly when the thunder outside gyrated again. "_Please_?" She itched at her arm, long nails scratching at skin as though she wasn't sure about something, her doubt mounting against her eyes. She looked to the slightly open door across the room and then back to me, still chained and lying on the bed. Her hands crawled up to her face, as through she wanted to tare her skin off and have her bones escape and start anew. I knew instinctively that she was afraid to help me, as she continually looked back at the cracked door once every few seconds and then back to me. Her tiny form still huddled against the wall beside the bookcase.

"Are you the Cobriana, the one that Theron speaks of?" Her voice was thin between her shaking lips.

"Yes," I answered quickly, feeling a bit of strength return to me. Had Theron told her about me? Had she come to set me free? "Why have you..."

She wouldn't let me speak, she threw her finger up to her lips negatively and her furrowed expression told me to be quiet. "Theron will hear you if you speak!" she alleged, her voice still small and breathless. She took a step toward me, out of the shadows and in her hand I saw a small glass, half filled with the pale crystal clear sweetness of water. I forced my head up slightly, silently begging for just the slightest sip. She obliged me, coming closer until she was completely at my side; her fears almost calmed now and with one hand under my neck she held the glass to my lips and tilted it slightly. A flood of moisture nourishing my dry lips, mouth, and throat. Reliving me off my dehydration. I drank until the glass was empty, but still I would have preferred more. "Thank you," I offered, and she nodded, excepting my thanks. "My name is Zane Cobriana." I knew that this girl was probably my only chance at escape from this place, and I knew that I would need to befriend her before I could even dream of her helping me.

"I'm Katie. Just Katie, slave to the master Jaguar, and I know who you are. Theron speaks of nothing else. Every story he tells is about you."

I would have been flattered if I wasn't so uncomfortable in this place.

"Do you think you can help me get out of these chains?" Without a word she pulled a heavy set of metal keys form the waste pocket of her pants. Hundreds of tiny keys lined a large chain but she quickly pulled what she believed to be the right one of the cluster within a few minutes.

"Theron has taken Jeshickah to bed already; he never takes the keys with him, and always leaves then in the same place."

"How do you know which one is the right one?" I asked, amazed at how much she knew about her master's schedule.

"Jeshickah likes to chain us sometimes, and all of the chain's work under the same lock."

She didn't waste any time. Moving to the chains around my ankles first, she shoved the tiny key into its hole and twists, immediately freeing one, and then the other. I pulled my knees up, flexing the tired and sore muscles in my legs for the first time in hours. When I moved them I felt a searing pain behind my knees, pains that I remembered must have been caused when Theron's guards kicked me in order to stop me for getting away from then and going to Danica earlier. After my feet were free she moved to my hands, freeing one, and then moving across the bed to the other. Once I was completely free I thanked her, knowing full well that I would not have gotten this far without her.

"I have to go now," she began, "but you can make your escape through the hallways. Be careful of the guards." She took a step away, but I hastily grabbed her arm, wrapping my fingers around its tiny flesh covered bone.

"Please, before you go, do you know anything about Danica Shardae, the girl that I was brought with? I know only that they took her to a small room down the hall, and that she was unconscious last time that I saw her." My heart was racing, and her eyes lowered, as though searching the reaches of her mind for the right concoction of words to form and tell me the truth.

"There is nothing to be done for her now;" she said matter-of-factly, her voice plane and truthful.

"NO!" I yelled, my voice louder then I meant it to be and I hoped immediately that the guards had not heard me. I rushed to my feet, and I saw Katie fly back to the wall where she stood before, her hands protectively placed in front of her face as though she thought that I would hit her. I backed away, not wanting to scare her further. "Thank you for all that you have done." I spoke lightly. I turned from her and ran out of the room that had held me captive for hours. The force of movement on my numb muscles was hard and aching underneath my skin. My bones screamed at me to stop and rest, but I could not; I had to get to Danica. It was my last hope that I could do something to help her.

I ran, and ran, and ran further until I was lost and had confused myself in the vast labyrinth of corridors that made up Midnight. I checked every door, open or closed, not caring of what I stumbled upon when I opened it. I couldn't remember exactly where I had seen Danica. Every hall was hazy in my memory and I wondered for a fleeting second if I had really seen her or if it had all been a figment of my desire filled imagination.

Finally something looked familiar, a doorway, its inside hidden from me by a closed dark mahogany door. I approached it slowly, wondering if it were really the right one and if I would find happiness or despair on the other side. My hand trembled as I turned the knob and entered.

The room was filled with light, hot florescent light that was as unnatural as I had ever seen it. Tall, huge bulbous lamps at either side of a surgical table shone down on a motionless Danica. Her skin covered in a thick sweat, her hair drowned in it. "Danica?" I breathed, still in the doorway; I wanted her answer more then I wanted anything else in my life. She remained still, and I took another step toward her, "Danica?" I called out again, but still no answer.

Without hesitation I ran to her side, my hands cupping themselves around her clammy cheeks, her eyes were half open, and looked up at me, but I could tell that she had no idea what was going on. Was she alive? I placed my hand at her wrist and waited, the seconds endless as I counted. She was alive, but barely. Her face was bruised, and her skin ablaze with fever. I looked around, several tubes were attached to her skin, from one arm it sucked blood out of her and from the other it injected a strange amber-tinted liquid. I pulled both tubes from her arms carefully, my hands covered with thick red blood as it spurt from the open wounds. "Danica?" I called again, bringing my hands back up to her face once more, wishing that my touch could arose her from whatever state Theron and his thugs had placed her in. "Dan-"

I silenced myself; from down the hall I could hear footsteps, fast and hard against the creaky floor. Had I been heard? Was it Midnights guards that were coming after us again? Would they separate us? I held firmly to her cheeks again, if this was the last time that I would see her, even in this state that she now lied in I had to feel something of her love again. I bent down, tilting her head slightly toward me and with tender lips I kissed her...


	12. Chapter Eleven

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Chapter Eleven~

Her lips were sweet and loving, even though my action had not awoken her from her unconscious sleep. I realized, after I lifted my head away that I had thought that it would, as though we were characters in some dark fairy tale. She was the beautiful princess and I the daring knight who had come to save her.

_If only..._

She remained unmoving, and as far as I knew she wouldn't be able to tell my touch from any other's. She was probably imagining that I was Zachary, her new love, and not Zane, her old love.

For a moment I had completely forgotten about the footsteps and guards approaching from down the hall. All I could hear was the sound of my own beating heart and what it had felt like to be beating side by side with hers once more, the rhythm intoxicating as it once had been. _They might just pass us by_, I thought for a moment, but I knew that they wouldn't. Their boot heals became louder and louder, as they were drawing nearer. It was in that moment that I knew I had to make a choice. My hands were burning into her cheeks and I didn't want to leaver her side; the thought of just taking my hands away was unbearable. However, I knew that if the guards came in and found me here, I would be taken back into the room that Theron had placed me in or a room of equal horrors and then I would be of no help to Danica. I had no idea how much longer she would remain alive, if she would live through this at all.

I glanced down at her once more, my eyes burning her image within me; I bent down and kissed her again but only on the cheek. The feel of her soft skin healed me of whatever wound I was faced with. Letting go of her, I sprinted to the other side of the unusual room. Every lamp and light bulb was pointed at Danica, making the room seem small, but every corner was hidden by lengthy shadows that shielded me from sight now that I wanted to be hidden. I straightened my back until the outline of my body formed to the same shape as that of the wall and I watched her, the even movement of her chest as it rose and depleted with each breath, all while listening for the footsteps outside. The noise of movement seemed to stop once I was really listening and ready for it. In my mind I pictured several of the vampire and shapshifting guards alerted to my absence from the other room and waiting outside the door to make their entrance. For a moment I thought that I heard whispers.

I waited, like a runner at a marathon, anticipating the shot that would begin my journey, but nothing came. Were they trying to psyche me out of their presence? Were they really on the other side of that door? My eyes narrowed as I scanned the room for any escape roots, but there were none, no windows, and the only door was the one that I had come in through, and the same one that the guards were standing outside of now. My eyes brought me back to Danica, for so long I had thought that she was dead I never imagined that I would find her alive, none of it seemed real to me now. I silently pinched myself to make sure that it wasn't a dream that I had slipped in to.

My eyes narrowed around the room again. How was I going to get her out of here? I couldn't exactly just walk out with her and give the sentinels who were guarding this place a "thanks a lot, boys" handshake and expect to get on my merry way. I needed a weapon, but I knew that I wouldn't find one in here, and I doubted that there would be one just lying around for me to take. I swallowed hard, my throat moistened from the water that Katie had given me, but the action hurt just the same.

There was still no noise or movement from the guards. Were they _really_ out there? There was no way to be sure, so all that I could do was wait...

I waited for what seemed like hours. I didn't move, and as far as I could tell, they didn't move. Finally I heard something, but I was sure that it was no noise that the guards could have made. It was an earsplitting crash that was unlike the thunder roaring outside or the footsteps just behind the wall. It was as if thousands of hands were hitting the wall down the corridor, and the entire structure seemed to shake with the velocity of it. I wondered if this was a trap set by the guards, but only seconds after it I heard footsteps again, this time moving loudly down the hall beyond us. I pressed my ear to the wall, my black hair curling against my face, and I listened but was sure now that they were gone. They must have not caused the noise, and perhaps they thought that I had made that noise and was now somewhere else in the building. I waited a few more seconds, just to be sure that they were gone, and then I moved out of the shadows.

I ran to her, a pace that I didn't know that I had. I knew that she was still breathing. I had constantly kept watch over her raising and falling chest out of the corner of my eye as I waited for the guards to make their appearance, but I needed to be sure. I placed my hand on her throat, and felt for a pulse, then I put my other hand on the underside of her wrist and tried to feel one out their as well, but something stopped me. As I reached my hand down her arm I felt a warm sticky liquid against my fingertips. I looked down and her arms and the sides of her white tank top were covered in blood, and the wound I recognized quickly, was from the tubes and wires that had been attached to her arms, and that I had pulled from her when I came in. How could the wounds be so deep? I didn't have time to question, the rapidly spewing blood unnerved me, and I quickly reached for the nearest thing to a bandage that I could find.

I found, underneath the makeshift surgical table that she was lying on, an unused white pillowcase. I grabbed the pure white material with both hands and tore it into long strips quickly. I rolled the ripped material onto each of the wounds on her arms, going more for efficiency than outstanding looks. What was left of the pillowcase - which was a few more unused strips - I placed into the back pocket of my jeans. Those dressings would need to be changed soon, and I could already see blood begin to soak through the thin cloth.

"Za-," I heard, as I hastily placed the rest of the cloth into my back pocket. My eyes lifted immediately.

"Danica?" I begged, clasping my hands onto her cheeks and feeling her slightly lean into one of them. Her eyes were narrow, only half open and glazed over slightly, as though she were about to pass out again. I lifted her head up slightly to try and wake her further, but I felt her head roll back and her eyes shut again. "Danica?" I said, louder and more forceful this time, shaking her head remotely as I spoke. She came back in a few seconds and she tried to say my name again, but failed. All she got out was "Za-" like before, and I wondered if she were trying to say my name at all or if she was really calling out to Zachary, though the names sounded so familiar that I really couldn't tell which of us she was referring to. "Come on, Danica, we have to go!" I said, holding her torso up to mine and helping her to get off the table. She was so weak and sedated that I didn't think that she would be able to stand, but she had to, seeing as moving was the only way to wear off whatever she was given, and I needed her to wake up. I couldn't fight my way out of here - which I knew I would have to do - with her half out-of-it and hanging off of me. "Come on, Danica, you have to wake up."

I tapped my hand against her cheek a few times as her head dropped back and she faded out again. "Come on, come on, I need you on this," I whispered, trying to reason with the stronger side of her I knew was in there somewhere. "Come on, we've been through worse things than this, and we're not going to quit now." My words seemed to rouse her slightly, and I was glad of it. I knew that I had gotten through when she tried to lift herself off of the table and walk, but being so weak her legs collapsed the moment that they straightened and stood on their own and I had to hold her up, and have her lean on me as we began to make our way to the door.

We were half way there when I heard the footsteps again, lighter this time, but ominous just the same. We were so close to the door we would be seen immediately after whoever it was on the other side came in. The doorknob began to turn. We needed to get back into the shadows on the other side of the room, but there was no time to get us both over there before the door opened. With all of my strength I propped Danica against me and prepared myself for what was to come. I knew that we wouldn't get through this fight alive.

The door opened... 


	13. Chapter Twelve

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Chapter Twelve~

The door opened, and to my surprise it was Katie, her stick figure-like form barley needed to open the door larger then a crack to have her whole body through. "What are you doing?" I asked, my voice slick and silent, I didn't know if she had come to help us or if she were about to alert the guards to our presence.

"Quickly!" Was all that she said as she opened to door wider and reached her hand out. She was close enough to side her tiny hand along Danica's arm and pull it up over her shoulder. She was helping us, but why I couldn't figure out. She held Danica's other side up and together we made our way out of the room. "The guards think that you are on the other side of the compound, but we only have a few seconds before they realize that your not."

"Down here!" I heard a boy yell from down the long corridor, though I could see no one. "He's gone down here!" My pace quickened.

Danica was still barely conscious, but she was trying, her feet tried to walk but all that they could really do was drag. I knew that whatever they had given to sedate her was strong and as far as I could tell it wasn't wearing off anytime soon. As we raced through the hallway I looked at her, her head bowed as if in great contemplation, or giving her allegiance to some royal leader. One of her arms was stretched out and dangling over my shoulders and the other was doing the same around Katie's. The wounds on her arms were still bleeding as well. The white linen bandage already was died red with blood and soaked all the way around and blood was now beginning to drip and slide down her arm and fall in small globs on the ground. We would be discovered this way! We had to hurry, for all of our sacks.

Katie knew this strange labyrinth like the back of her hand and she lead us through it with ease. "Why are you helping us?" I asked as we passed along another wising corner that lead to an almost identical corridor as the last one that we had gone through. She said nothing, and I wondered if her silence was out of contempt, or some darker purpose. Could she be leading us into a trap? "Katie!" I pressed, all I could see of her form was her tiny bare feet as they continually stepped in front of her, she was, and I had to admit, a step ahead of me.

"I am a slave here, just as you would have come to be. Very few of us get to escape this place, and if I can help get you and your friend to safety then my being here is worth it." 

I wanted to say something to her, anything, but I couldn't find the words. I believed her though, if ever I believed anything anyone ever told me it was that she meant well in helping us.

We turned another corner, and from behind us I could hear voices again; a succession of commands like: "This way!," "A blood trail!," "Hurry!" Hurry, I knew that we would have to get out of here soon, from what I was hearing they were only a few feet behind us and just around the corner. 

"How much longer Katie?"

"We're almost there."

We turned another corner, and off to the side I could see the throne room that we had been taken to when Danica and I had first arrived. The throne room was crisp and clean, with dark marble floorings and a single seat, fit for a single ruler in the center of it. As I looked into the dark room, a dark figure passed into my sight. It had me frozen in my step, and Katie quickly stopping to see why I had stopped. It was a man, I could tell as he moved from the shadows of the corner of the room. Dark eyes staring me down as he gracefully walked from the shadows, no muscle moving unless he wanted it to. It took him only a matter of seconds to get to us from across the room, and the slight movement of his unusually dark black hair was the only sign that he had moved at all. He was a vampire I realized quickly, I could tell by the eyes.

"Jaguar!" Katie said through a hoarse and creaky voice. I knew enough about Midnight to know that Jaguar was the leader, and I knew enough about leaders to know that he wouldn't just let us go. I heard the guard's voices again, louder and closer this time and I contemplated making a run for it. I looked directly into Jaguar's eyes, they were dark, as though a veil were hiding any emotion and detection of feeling in them. Jaguar met my gaze, just as I had met his, and for a moment all we could do was stare each other down.

The moment passed, and Jaguar's eyes quickly passed to Katie. I heard her whisper something to him, her words were light but I though I made out: "She would want you to." With Katie's words he looked back at me and with his hand he pulled from his belt a small blade that was made of silver and incrusted with small stones of the palest green that I could only guess were made of Turquoise.

"It has always brought me luck; you will need it before the end is over." He handed me the blade, and I held it firmly between my fingers firmly. With the flick of his hand and the down set motion of his eyes he sent us off to our freedom. I had no idea why; he would allow us to go freely, when Theron and Jeshickah so adamantly desired to keep us here. Katie continued to lead us and from behind us I heard Jaguar direct the guards in another direction, buying us valuable time that we needed to escape.

Finally we made it to the doorway that would lead us out. "Come with us?" I asked her as she let go of Danica and took a step back.

She smiled, the smile of an innocent child, and not the slave who had been held captive for most of her life: "There are more that need to be freed before I can leave. Now go, but beware of the shapshifter's on the outer gate, they will be hidden from you, but they will know that you are there!"

"Thank you, for everything."

She smiled again.

With Danica still unable to walk on her own I held her underneath my arm and we made our way out of the compound. The first obstacle that we faced was the rain, which I hadn't realized while being inside was falling so hard. Large pellets of rain fell over our heads with no order or rhythm, just a constant spray of water that fell so strongly that it felt like concrete when it hit you. We made our way through it harshly, my skin stinging from the ferocity of it. The next thing that we encountered was the shapshifter lookouts that Katie had warned us about. They were not located in any kind of order like most lookouts are placed, but rather crows and ravens were perched on treetops and circled the perimeter in no selected order or path.

As I made my way to the twelve foot high stone fence that separated the compound from the woods a large Raven dove at me, slicing its tremendously sharp beak into my arm and poking all the way through to the bone.

The darkness of this place was unimaginable, there was no light from inside or out, and the moon, was hidden by shrouds of black clouds, that, with the rain seemed to be crying. "Go away!" I hissed, as the raven came down at me again, I had to push it away with my free hand but still it's beak scratched at me. "Common Danica," I propped her up more, she was still limp and barely conscience in my arms.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

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A/N: I know that it has been countless months sense I have updated or even touched this story. I would like to thank the devoted and wonderful people who have not only read and reviewed all of Snake Singer but have also been dedicated to this story. It is my fondest wish to finish this tale in the near future, but in the months that have kept me away from this story I have managed to forget where I was planning to go with it, so I am in the process of planning a new ending and new plot summaries. Though this chapter is a little fuzzy at times, half on it being written back in April and the rest in September the voice might be slightly different. I also apologize for the ending, it is not the usual cliff hanger endings that most of my chapters tend to end with but I hope that once I rediscover where I was planning on going with this that the excitement and adventure of these pages will once again be rekindled. Again my many thanks to the readers who have stayed devoted to this story, and to all of the new readers who have discovered it, I thank you.

Chapter Thirteen

The rain continued to fall. Icy pellets so stunning that my skin prickled and pounded with their force. Another raven came at me, this one larger then the first that I had driven away. It's long beak clamped and snapped down on my arm before I could stop it and as I shock my arm to shoo it away it tore a slice of flesh away from the bone. I winced in pain, almost buckling down at the shock and pressure of the wound. I wanted to scream out, seeing the blood pure down my arm like water from a facet, and trickle to the ground in large puddles.

I tightened my grip on Danica, she was soaked, as I was, and the weight of water on her cloths increased her weight.

The raven came at me again, but I quickly smacked it with the side of my arm that was not injured. The blow stunned the animal and I was given a desperately needed free moment to decide what my next move would be. It was pitch black and through the darkness and the rain I could barely see enough feet in front of me to find the entrance through the gate. I ducked into the thin tree line that grew against the stone of the fence. The shelter gave us relief from not only the rain but also the attacks of the raven, and whatever other guards this place had for its defense.

"Come on Danica;" I pleaded, I could feel her limbs lighten and fall with each step that we took. I had no idea what Theron and the guards had drugged her with. A medicinal drug that would only leave her unconscious for a while, or, as I feared, a poison that would leave her dead for defiling Jeshickah's order and rule on this place.

I couldn't stop; I had to keep going, even though I was feeling the life slip away slowly from the woman that I still loved in my arms.

My wounded, free hand was against the stone fence. Tracing, as best I could the groves and indents on the stone. I couldn't see anything in the lack of light that this night was affording me and I needed to know how to get out of this place. This wall had to have a door; an entrance, and exit, somewhere that you can come and go from.

"Well, what have we here!" I heard the voice like thunder in this storm of rain and emotion. I recognized the tone, and the accent, the slight hiss between the words. I turned and through the tree line I could see the form of a man, not much older then I, though years tended to be immeasurable by appearance to my people. The frighteningly red eyes, so like my own, which I had hid so long were staring me down mercilessly as the man stood perfectly still with his arms crossed. He was a Serpiente, if his looks and his voice were not a detection then his half changed form and extended Viper fangs were. "Zane Cobriana, my long lost king. Do forgive me if I do not bow before you."

This boy, this shapeshifter who seemed so oblivious to the things that I hade done not only for my people but for the safety of the ones I loved hit a cord with me. Like an instrument programmed to a certain tune which had long sense been abandoned to time and measurement was now finally being played again. I felt my fists clench, despite my wounds, and from between my lips I could feel the familiar sharpness and tingle of my Cobra fangs, long dormant growing again. I blinked my eyes, and when I opened them again I knew that they had returned to their natural red. Smooth, and flawless red that told anyone near that I was a king, a leader from an ancient blood line. I parted my lips and let my Cobra voice hiss from deep within my throat, a call, both frightening and beautiful to me.

Out of madness I slowly propped Danica against the fence and lunged toward the appearance. Within a matter of seconds, before I had reached him, he and I both changed into our true forms. Our snake forms. A form so real to me, yet after so long without it so strange. I felt the change take over me immediately, my emotions, my senses all shifted and changed. Hopelessly I was lost in the beauty of this new skin, and the pain of my limbs breaking and resetting was glorious joy between my lips as I hissed again.

Black scaled against the white scales of this Viper tangled through the rain and on the grass that felt so slick and smooth under me. I lifted my snake neck upright and hissed again, showing my fangs and curling my tale around this boy, who had never known what it was to take a life out of hate, only duty. His form buckled under me, I felt his skin crack and I felt the cry from his lips reverberate through both of my forms, though one was now deeply locked inside the other. Within the measure of a moment everything had come back to me, my past, so easily numbed and doubted now so strong inside of me. I felt the fear of being a child in times of war. I felt the venom fill my mouth and fall from my lips at the hatred that I felt toward the Avian's after so many of my family had been killed. I felt the senses and emotions that one who has killed can only feel.

In my Cobra state I was ruthless and lost within the skin that I thought had been lost to me. Danica, and the families that I had lived with sense my time away from her, those I have loved and lost, were all separate from me now. In this form I was not the mate that Danica had once loved, the man who had hurt her so deeply. I was not the son, that my father had loved when he held my hand on Python hill. I was a snake, I was angry, and I wanted to feel this boy die against me.

I tilted my head back, feeling the stretch of scales and flesh tense for the first time and I lowered it and sunk my fangs into the side of the young Vipers neck. I held my teeth there, feeling the thickness of his scales and human flesh between my lips. I wanted to go deeper and taste the blood still flowing through his veins but I could not. The shock that I felt from the tail that I had curled around him brought my fangs out of him and made me slither away quickly. The venom I had injected had caused him to start changing back into his human form.

Still in my Cobra form I sat paralyzed, seeing this young boy dead on the ground, his body curled in an unnatural position that only a snake would be comfortable in. His white flesh gleamed up at me, like an illuminated candle in all of this darkness. His red eyes were still open, as though life still breathed into his expression, unaware that death had already taken him. I changed back quickly, wanting to be rid of my Cobra form as though it were a deadly disease that would kill me inside the senselessness that I felt while in its structure. I stood; feeling the ach in my legs that time had left so strangely in me. My mouth was dry except for the venom that I had released from it. I licked my lips, tasting the bitter poison on them. I wiped my hand against my lips, my face, all of my skin, wanting the scent and feel of this boy's death off of me. I lifted my face to the sky, welcoming the rain still falling on my violently. _What had I done? _The question seemed so empty in me. I had no idea, no reasoning behind my ruthlessness.

I approached this boy, his face still alive with expression and his eyes, still deep red staring me down. I bent my knees, no longer feeling the rain against my skin as though a shield had been placed above me. I lifted my hand, and slowly closed those eyes, so unique to my people, so beautiful and so passionate about the ways of our land. _Lost. _Lost to this boy and now lost to me. With my hand on his face, brushing his stiff features into the submission of their fate his body jerked. The poison was still flowing through his veins, hitting each nerve slowly, still, even after death. When he moved I heard a sound, a jingle that made me take my hand away. The metallic ring could only be one thing. Keys.

I searched through each of his pockets until I found them, three sets of keys on one single ring. I held the silver escape routs in my hand, wondering if one of them was the one that I would need to get Danica and me out of this place.

"_Zane_," I heard from behind me, I turned and could see Danica moving her head, slurring her speech as she came in and out of her lethargic sleep. I stood; ready to go to her, but then I stopped. The boy's face was haunting me, I had never killed an opponent that was not worthy or willing to fight me, and never had I been so willing to deal out death in such effortless terms. The thought frightened me, chilling me more then any rain could.

I shock myself out of it, going over to Danica and rising her up in my arms. My wounds long numb now to pain, I could feel nothing more then my desire to leave this place and never return.


End file.
